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From: Anelise J. Bohnen
Date: 09 Oct 2012
Time: 19:03:48 -0500
Remote Name: 187.107.57.39
Dear Peter These are wonderful questions. You see, stuttering is still a black box… If you look at Table 1, you will notice that the majority of atypical movements are not directly on the vocal folds, but on the structures around them. Vocal folds need the right amount of tension to work properly, and it seems to me that speech rate is not an issue in this case. When you say that slower speech enhances fluency, it is because the movements are smooth, the contact between articulators is softer/lighter. But this does not implicate in more or less tension of the vocal folds. Slower speech rate is important because it gives you preparation time. You see, the brain sends you a message that stuttering is coming on a certain word at least 450 milliseconds before the motor commands arrive at your mouth. If you are speaking fast, probably there won't be enough time for you to do anything in order to prevent that the stuttering word is pronounced. On the other hand, if you are at a slower pace, you will have the time to anticipate the broken word and deal with it by, say, making light articulatory contacts. On both cases, vocal folds must work with the proper tension. But this does not mean that the structures of the vocal tract are at ease, either. The short films you watched showed us that there is a lot of activity going on in the larynx. If I did not answer your questions completely, please keep in touch to continue this discussion. Best regards to you too.