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From: J. Scott Yaruss
Date: 10/4/00
Time: 1:56:11 PM
Remote Name: 128.147.90.204
Hi all... wow - finally found something I can post on that my friends didn't beat me to ;=)
It's not much, but I wanted to add in a comment in response to Gunars's post...many adults who stutter do report an experience of "losing touch" during a hard block, which Van Riper termed the "petit(e) mort"...In fact, Lou Heite is currently completing a thesis on this topic, and may have something to add...
In any case, I wanted to suggest that we do work directly on minimizing the intensity of the "loss of control" feeling during the block, in part through education and desensitization of the stuttering moment. My impression is that people are better able to engage in active proprioceptive monitoring -- and even speech modification -- once they have made some progress in the desensitization process.
During an intense block, it may be very difficult if not impossible to engage in active monitoring or modification if the speaker is experiencing the petite mort...as the speaker becomes better able to tolerate the unpleasant experiences and feelings that accompany the block, their ability to manage the block through proprioception and other methods increases...
That process of desensitization has been discussed previously by my friend Bob Quesal as helping the client learn to "stay inside a burning house..." In other words, rather than experiencing the panic and the NEED to get out of that block immediately, we help the speaker learn to tolerate staying in that block (though activities like holding on to blocks and pseudostuttering)...once they can stay in that burning house and look around, then they are better able to engage their modifications, whatever they may be.
Hope this contributes a little...TFL (thanks for listening...)
Scott