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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 03 Oct 2006
Time: 16:23:39 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.42
Dear Joseph, You have lots of questions! I wish we had as many answers. I'll comment briefly on your first one here. Why is stuttering more frequent under periods of stress? First, it is important to say that this is not always obvious. There are some people who stutter most when they are relaxed and least when they are in social situations that others would regard as stressful. But stress and stuttering frequency are often related. I don't know the answer for sure, but it has been well established that psychological stress disrupts fine motor skills. If this were not the case, athletes would perform just as well in games and competitions as they would in practice. Many do not. Speech is a very complex motor act. Therefore, it is not surprising to me that stuttering (which at some level of analysis can be seen as a breakdown in motor coordination) follows the same pattern as other parts of the body. Ken