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From: Art Struss
Date: 06 Oct 2011
Time: 09:03:14 -0500
Remote Name: 205.188.116.78
Thanks so much for your paper about costal breathing. I took the McGuire program in 2009. Before I took the course, I would squeeze my words out with almost no air, trying to speak on residual air, but I did get the words out. It was a very stressful way of speaking. All my previous speech therapy did not involve a breathing technique, so learning about costal breathing appealed to me. Before I took the course, I did read Dave McGuire’s book. I was impressed that John Harrison wrote the introduction, since I’m a fan of John Harrison’s Stuttering Hexagon, which attempts to address some of the psychological aspects of stuttering. But getting back to costal breathing: To me costal breathing is similar to taking a deep sigh. I will take a costal breath before I even attempt to speak. It’s a way to get myself into a speech modification mode. I do speak in phases with pauses between the phases. I know that at the end of the phase, the McGuire program instructs one to release residual air before taking another costal breath. I do slow my speaking rate down so that it’s easier to take a breath. So at 71, I have improved my speech fluency a lot, and I give speeches at Toastmasters. Costal breathing is only one part of my fluency improvement; addressing the psychological issues of my stuttering was just as important. Costal breathing is only part of the McGuire program. Thanks again for addressing costal breathing.