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From: Charlie Healey
Date: 18 Oct 2011
Time: 15:42:52 -0500
Remote Name: 129.93.227.150
When we teach clients to cancel a stutter, we are referring to a technique introduced many years ago by Van Riper. He advocated that rather than have a person who stutters strive to be fluent, it might be easier to modify the moment of stuttering as it is occurring. So, one approach to managing the moment of stuttering is to stop the stutter in midstream, relax the musculature and then take the time to reset the speech mechanism so the person changes to a more controlled production of the word. To cancel a stutter means to briefly stop the stuttered word and then change to something more helpful like easing into the word again with something like more airflow, relax the tongue and jaw, use a light articulatory contact, etc. I teach clients to cancel a stutter, then pause and when they feel ready, shift to an easier form of stuttering or more controlled finish to the word. So, for example, if the person wanted to say, "Can you tell where it is?" and the person stutters on "Can." Let's say that it is a repetition like c-c-c-c-can. I would have the person produce a couple of repetitions of the "c" in can, stop the repetition, then use a light articulatory contact with a focus on more airflow as the word is completed...like c-c-c...cccchhhhhan you tell me.... Some clinicians suggest the person say the word again fluently before going on to the next word. I have not found that most clients like to do that and prefer to just move on into the next word they want to say. Hope this helps.