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From: Jim Abbott
Date: 10/15/01
Time: 7:40:07 PM
Remote Name: 166.90.229.202
Most of what I write is a amalgam; based a lot of my life, but also on what I have learned from others. The three poems that I have written about avoidence and secondary behaviors (tricks)were based on my experiences with the various "covert" stutterers that I have met. While I used all of the standard tricks, I could never conceive of the fact that I could actually hide my stuttered speech. One thing that I did do was whenever I felt a block coming on, I would pretend to yawn; and when I thought that I could say the word in question, I would stop yawning and try to say the word. That worked on occasion (though people would often comment that I really needed to get some sleep), but like all tricks, it would ultimately fail. I would break out of my yawn, try to speak, continue having a block, and have to go back to yawning again. While I thought it was helping me, I realized years later that that wasn't the case. Another trick I picked up was while I was speaking, let's say that I was trying to say my name, and I felt like I might block on my last name, I would extend the previous letter or sound, untill I felt like I could continue. So I might say "my name is Jimmmm Abbott." It's amazing the things we go thru just to avoid what to us, is OUR NORMAL SPEECH PATTERN. If only I knew then what I know now.