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Re: Extent of Real Stuttering in case of Switching Languages

From: Woody Starkweather
Date: 10/22/01
Time: 8:31:40 AM
Remote Name: 152.163.197.84

Comments

Hi Viren:

Because at Temple University we had a bilingual training program, we have had a fair amount of experience with bilingual stutterers. The phenomenon you describe, switching to a different language momentarily to avoid stuttering, is not uncommon among bilingual stutterers. Essentially, it is the same thing as the monolingual stutterer switching to another word that he or she feels he will say fluently. It is simply that the bilingual stutterer has more choices. And, of course, the options are available only when the stutterer is talking to someone who shares the same languages.

So, what should you do? I say to all stutterers who change words to avoid stuttering that word-changing is not a good strategy; it increases fear and leads to further word-changing. In the end it can seriously damage your ability to express yourself clearly because in order to change words, sometimes you have to change the sentence structure also. This is also true -- perhaps more true -- in the case of bilingual changes. However, each time that you are going to stutter and feel that by changing a word you will speak more fluently, you have to make a decision. If you don't change the word, you may stutter, and this may be at least embarrassing, and in some circumstances, it might have more important consequences. So, there are times when you will decide to go ahead and change the word because the short-term positive consequences seem more important than the long-term negative ones. I think that as long as you are well informed about these different types of consequences, then the decision should be up to you, and you should try to feel comfortable with whatever decision you make, that is, do not berate yourself if you made what seems afterwards to have been a bad decision. No one is perfect, and we strive for progress not perfection. These decisions are made very quickly also, and cannot always be correct.

Good luck on this journey.

Woody


Last changed: September 14, 2005