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From: Winton
Date: 16 Oct 2006
Time: 19:05:24 -0500
Remote Name: 203.51.81.162
Hi Kerry. You asked: <<Do you consider "welcoming the yips" to be equivalent to pseudo-stuttering? Do you practice trying to stutter as well as letting it happen?>> I don’t see “welcoming the yips” as equivalent to pseudo-stuttering but it could be regarded as an alternative way of dealing with anticipatory fears associated with memories of past blocking. I don’t make much use of voluntary disfluency but I think it was important for me to do it a few times just to come to terms with the reaction I had when it was first suggested to me. I was actually horrified by the idea. It seemed to me like “tempting fate”. I was worried that voluntary disfluency would cause me to become more self conscious about my speech and lead to more blocking. I also thought that listeners had enough to put up with without adding additional disfluency. In the end, however, I decided that it might be fun to try some voluntary disfluency and I did enjoy it. It was actually fun to watch the expressions on the faces of some listeners when they thought that I was about to block. The exercise helped me to get over the feeling of being responsible for any adverse emotional responses that other people may have to my behaviors. Regards, Winton. PS: You might also be interested in my response to Evan Panitzke about the yips.