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From: Heather Grossman
Date: 11 Oct 2012
Time: 16:53:19 -0500
Remote Name: 108.46.17.155
Great questions! Desensitization can be tricky! Of course some people do end up having what we might call a "negative experience" (like someone laughs, or is dismissive) but for the PWS, the actual negativity of the experience is often found to be unpleasant but yet tolerable, and that's the point. Often, the fear of the negative reaction is worse that it actually happening. I do see that for many clients, the frequency and perhaps most dramatically, the tension and struggle involved in their stuttering is often greatly reduced through voluntary stuttering and desensitization. To over simplify, since so much of what people wish to change about their stuttering is what they have come to do in order to avoid stuttering, when they are more wiling to let it out, that struggle diminishes and more forward moving speech often emerges. My research shows that the act of producing slow, deliberate, tension free sound repetitions (b-b-bounces) not only helps with desensitization, awareness and instilling a feeling of control, it actually "primes the speech motor" for more fluent speech production. Clinicians often need as much desensitization as our clients! We recommend they stutter in all different ways in many situations, learn and practice all techniques in the arsenal in real life situations, and to get involved with stuttering self-help groups. I believe as SLP's we need to be VERY comfortable modeling what we are advocating and asking the tough questions without feeling awkward. As for time to achieve desensitization, people are VASTLY different. I have seen some make huge gains after making only a handful of calls introducing themselves, while others need months of systematic desensitization activities completed in a structured hierarchy. Others get to a great place of acceptance and management, only to find themselves needing to return for some more work years later. Thank you all for your comments!