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From: David Shapiro
Date: 06 Oct 2006
Time: 16:24:44 -0500
Remote Name: 152.30.155.33
Ousmane, You’ve asked an important question. The patterns of stuttering, including its predictability and its variability, have intrigued both speech-language pathologists and people who stutter. Surely certain conditions precipitate or perpetuate stuttering. Also, our thoughts about stuttering may influence our stuttering behavior. When identifying speaking contexts that people who stutter perceive to be of increasing levels of difficulty from the easiest to the hardest, and when analyzing the conversational samples of people who stutter, I have learned that stuttering does vary with each individual, although often there are common features across people who stutter. So, yes, the patterns you described often are experienced by others. With appropriate guidance, moving gradually from the least to the most challenging situations often enables people who stutter to develop fluency control and feelings of improved communication independence. It is interesting how stuttering provides an opportunity to continue to learn about our communication and ourselves. David