[ Contents]
From: Walt Manning
Date: 10/10/02
Time: 11:04:49 AM
Remote Name: 141.225.97.53
Becky- I'll let people who know more about brain function than I respond to your third paragraph. But I want to respond to your first paragraph where you mention that your friend stutters more ("of course") during times of anxiety. Stuttering,if nothing else, is highly variable and perceived or actual anxiety and stuttering (especially the frequncy of stuttering) to not correspond. It is possible for speakers who stutter to be extremely fluent under high stress and vice versa. He sounds like a regular PWS if his fluency varies from barely noticable to prevalent. Sometimes when angered the fluency of PWS disappears and sometimes if doesn't. In your second paragraph you ask about his ability to "focus" on a topic and the apparently resulting increase in fluency. Again, this can be the the case some of the time with some people. Some speakers stutter more when they think about their speech and some less - depending on how desensitized they are about speech & stuttering and what techniques they may be using to change their fluency. So, what you're describing is typical a typical developmental PWS. If you can find someone to completely answer the question posed in your third paragraph you should receive the "Question of the Conference Award" from Judith.