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From: Allison
Date: 13 Oct 2010
Time: 15:02:02 -0500
Remote Name: 207.38.133.145
For as long as I can remember my uncle has had some kind of dysfluency. What I mean by that is he repeats one syllable or sound of a word several times. It does not occur every time he speaks by any means, but it happens often enough during casual conversations that I barely even notice it anymore. Though if another speaker had the same kind of fluency break I would definitely notice. Growing up I always kind of thought he had a little stutter. Now that I am in graduate school learning about fluency, I am having difficulty determining whether my uncle is a person who stutters or not. I have never seen him exhibit any tension or secondary behaviors (nor even acknowledge that it occurred). In fact, I asked him recently if he had ever received speech therapy growing up and his response was "yes, I had a lisp" (no mention of any kind of stutter). Is it possible for an adult to have such a regular dysfluency without it being technically stuttering? Is this just normal adult dysfluency or a person who stutters?