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From: Peter Reitzes
Date: 14 Oct 2005
Time: 07:50:01 -0500
Remote Name: 165.155.160.135
Sophie, you really do ask some great questions. One of the reasons people tend to stutter more when first using voluntary stuttering is because they are talking more. Walter Manning (1999), a speech pathologist who stutters, has written, "Increased stuttering usually occurs with decreased avoidance. So, under certain circumstances, one sign of progress could very well be an increase in the frequency of your stuttering." While having reduced stuttering as one of your long term goals is fine, I do not believe that reduced stuttering as a short term goal will help you and may even discourage you. In my paper I listed reduced stuttering as a target, but I listed it last because I believe that working on desensitization and practicing speech modification using voluntary stuttering needs to come first. A lot of voluntary stuttering is about practice and experimentation and I would not look for a consistent reduction of stuttering behaviors when first using it. The more you use voluntary stuttering in challenging situations, the more worth I believe you will find in this strategy. ------REFERENCE: Manning, W. H. (1999b). Sports analogies in the treatment of stuttering: Taking the field with your client. In A. Bradberry & N. Reardon (Eds.), Our Voices: Inspirational insight from young people who stutter (pp. 156-163). Anaheim Hills, CA: National Stuttering Association.