The first rule or guideline calls for you to build a habit of talking slowly and deliberately, whether or not you stutter. This is recommended for a couple of reasons. First, it induces a manner of talking which is generally respected and admired and secondly, it will result in a more varied, relaxed manner of speaking which is more responsive to therapy controlled procedures.

Temporarily accepting your role as a stutterer, resolve to make a special effort to talk slowly and deliberately all the time, varying your rate and loudness. This will not be easy to do if you normally speak fairly rapidly. It will take a lot of concentration to talk slowly whenever you speak.

It would help if you could spend at least five minutes a day practicing when you are alone. Possibly think of some subject about which you are informed and talk to yourself slowly and deliberately, varying the speed and loudness. Or you might read to yourself in that same way that you should use in conversation with others.

When you are with others always try to resist feelings of time pressure. At the moment you are expected to speak you may sometimes have an almost panicky feeling of haste and urgency. You think that you are under "time pressure" with no time to lose, and you have a compulsive feeling that you must speak quickly without taking the time for deliberate and relaxed expression. Do your best to resist this time pressure feeling.

Stutterers are also apt to fear silence when they are embarrassed. It is suggested that you might experiment with occasionally pausing when called on to speak. Pause momentarily and be silent. There is no hurry - probably you are not taking as much time as you think - take your time. Unless there is a fire, people will wait to hear what you have to say. Let them wait and don't hurry saying "hello" on the phone. Pause! Take your time.

If you have a tape recorder available, this would be an opportune time to make a recording of the way you talk, particularly if you have not yet started speaking according to the recommendations of this first rule.

Making a recording of the way you usually stutter will supply remedial information to be used in this program. For example, listening to such a recording should help you discover what, if anything, would need to be done to qualify you as speaking slowly and deliberately.

The question arises as to what may be the best way to get a recording of your stuttering. We hope you will find a way. If you have trouble talking on the phone, you might place a microphone near when you make several phone calls - at least five or possibly ten minutes of recording time would be desirable.

This most essential second rule or guideline suggests that you make a practice of stuttering easily and smoothly without forcing. It doesn't call for you to stop stuttering, but to do it easily and smoothly, sliding into the sounds of words with light, loose movements of your tongue, lips and jaw.

This is sometimes referred to as gentle phonation or easy onset. With normal quiet breathing when talking this way you make a particular point of gently and slowly sliding into the beginning sounds of words (or syllables) in a relaxed manner without trying to force your way through.

One of the ways you can tell if you are struggling is to monitor the amount of air pressure in your mouth. Try not to let it build up behind your lips or tongue. Try stuttering with the lips loose and the tongue not pressing tightly against your gums or palate. Why erect a blockade in your mouth behind which the air pressure increases greatly? Stutter easily and not hard!

You could practice talking smoothly and easily by reading aloud when alone for five or ten minutes a day while working on this rule. Read in a firm voice but keep your speech movements loose and relaxed. The idea is to get accustomed to using gentle light controls of your muscles of speech whether or not you stutter.

Although sometimes difficult to effect, the recommendation is also made that the stutterer practice relaxation of his speech muscles. This calls for him to purposely tense himself, particularly in the mouth area. And then release or relax the tension so the difference can be felt.

This guideline by itself will not stop your stuttering, but if you can accustom yourself to effortless talking or stuttering, you will be under less stress and tension and this will make you happier about your speech.

It can be a problem to get yourself accustomed to this easy manner of talking. You will forget at times but should use reminders when you are working on these rules. For instance, you could put up a sign on your clock or mirror to read "Remember to easy-stutter today", or put a rubber band on your wrist so you will be continuously reminded to direct your efforts toward talking easily. You could also make a list at night of the times during the day of situations where you did or did not remember to talk as suggested.

Most all stuttering, to some extent, results from efforts to force trouble-free speech. Unfortunately, the mechanism of speech is too complicated to function properly when force is applied. So if you can comply with this first rule and let yourself stutter easily your severity will be lessened and so will the frequency of your stuttering.

When you are working on these rules you might make a record of your progress in your workbook. First, you could try for one successful performance, then two in a row, then three in a series, and so on, until you have been able to collect five consecutive listeners to whom you have spoken slowly in an easy smooth manner whether or not you stutter.

The third rule or therapy guideline calls for you to adopt an attitude of being willing to openly admit and not hide the fact that you are a stutterer. You may ask why should you do that when you are trying to not be one.

This is because in order to make headway it is advisable that you first adopt an attitude of being willing to talk frankly to others about your problem. By so doing you will be lessening a lot of the fear of difficulty you have when talking.

As has been explained, if you are like most stutterers you are ashamed of the fact that you stutter. And as a result you try to keep others from finding out that you are a stutterer. This feeling of shame tends to build up in you a fear of having difficulty when you are called on to speak at certain times and under certain circumstances.

As stated before, fear of difficulty tends to build up tension or tightness in your speech organs, which aggravates your trouble. Unfortunately, one's speaking apparatus operates in such a delicate, complex and complicated manner that it is most difficult for it to operate under tension. So the frequency and severity of your difficulty is usually in proportion to the amount of fear and tension you have.

To combat fear and tension - your worst enemies - it is necessary to torpedo a lot of your shame and sensitivity. The amount of energy a stutterer may spend in hiding his disorder can be tremendous. Some devise intricate strategies of avoidance and disguise, or may assume some kind of masquerade in the hope, usually a vain one, that the listener won't recognize them as a stutterer. This burden just makes communication more difficult.

Where does all that anxiety and worry get you? Nowhere. It only makes matters worse since it just builds up more fear and tension. So what can or should be done about it? Even if you are not obsessed with hiding the fact that you stutter, it will be helpful to get rid of what worry you have on this point.

The answer is simple but not easy. You can counteract a lot of that worry and concern by just telling people that you are a stutterer and stop pretending that you are a normal speaker. You should not shirk this assignment. Make occasions to freely admit to those with whom you associate and with whom you normally talk that you are a stutterer and be willing to discuss it with anyone.

This will take courage on your part, but this needs to be done to reduce your sensitivity. To change the mental approach toward your problem cannot be done easily and quickly, but the more you work at it, the more you can accomplish. It will pay off to do so. It is no disgrace to be a stutterer anyway. You may think so, but you are wrong if you do. Please don't allow your feelings to defeat your efforts.

Start on this assignment by talking with people you are close to and then later with strangers with whom you expect to have conversation. As one stutterer expressed it, "I'm letting the cat out of the bag right away. I'm telling him I'm a stutterer. t used to try to hide this because my greatest fear was having to reveal myself when I met someone. This way I take the fear out of the situation right away."

As another stutterer remarked "It took me twenty-one years before I would admit to myself, or anyone, that I stuttered. I didn't want to acknowledge that I was different. Yet that is precisely what I needed to do in order to take the first step toward forging a new and more fulfilling identity."

For example, you might say to a friend something to the effect that "you know that I am a stutterer and frankly I have been ashamed to admit it and I need to be more open and frank about my problem and may need your help." Any real friend will appreciate your frankness and will feel closer to you as a result. Besides you will find that people are interested in stuttering. Teach them about it.

Complying with this assignment will reduce your tension, and it will help you accept your stuttering as a problem with which you can cope with less shame and embarrassment. This can make a world of difference in enabling you to adopt a more healthy, wholesome and objective attitude toward your difficulty which all stutterers need so badly.

You may think it will hurt your pride to frankly tell people that you are a stutterer, but it is more likely that you will be proud of yourself for doing it. Besides there is no use spending your life pretending.

Of course you can't accomplish this goal in a day or two. It will take time to make contact with people you know and carry out this recommendation. No matter how long it takes, it will help reduce your tension and fear if you cultivate an attitude of being willing to talk about your stuttering.

Can you do so? As the fellow said "it ain't easy" - and that's putting it mildly. It may be far from easy - in fact it can be tough. But this is a most beneficial step toward relieving you of much of your fear and tension.

Voluntary Stuttering

When working on this third rule it is suggested that occasionally you stutter voluntarily. Stutterers can usually get some relief from fear and tension by doing this. If you deliberately stutter, you directly attack and help to reduce the tension which is aggravating your problem by voluntarily doing that which you dread.

Voluntary stuttering sometimes called fake or pseudo stuttering, should take the form of easy simple repetitions or short prolongations of the first sound or syllable of a word or the word itself. It should only be done on non-feared words in a calm and relaxed manner.

Do not imitate your own pattern of stuttering but stutter easily in a different way. Later you will be asked to study and learn about your own pattern, but it is better to stutter in an easy and relaxed way when doing it on purpose.

Whatever type of easy stuttering you decide to use you must be sure to keep it entirely voluntary as it is not advisable to let it get out of control and become involuntary. Experiment by talking slowly and deliberately with easy repetitions or prolongations that differ from your usual pattern. It will give you a sense of self-mastery when you can control the uncontrollable.

You could start when alone by reading aloud and calmly making easy repetitions or prolongations. Then later you can work it into conversations with others. Make up assignments for yourself in which you are required to stutter voluntarily. For instance, go into a store and ask the clerk the cost of different items, faking blocks on some words. Make the blocks easy but obvious. Maintain good eye contact while stuttering and be sure to purposely stutter only on words you do not fear.

Voluntary stuttering can help eliminate some of your shame and embarrassment. The more you can follow through and practice doing this, the easier it will become. Aim toward the goal of being willing to stutter without becoming emotionally disturbed.

Work at it for several reasons. It is one way of admitting that you are a stutterer. It is also a way of finding out how people react to stuttering and will help you realize that they are usually kind and tolerant. And it will give you the satisfaction of knowing that you have the courage to tackle your handicap in an obvious way.

It would also be helpful if you could inject a little humor or even be willing to joke about your stuttering. To do this would also help reduce sensitivity. For instance, occasionally you could make some joking remark about your stuttering - such as explaining that if you didn't talk you wouldn't stutter - or just say in response to some emphatic explanation, "you tell him I stutter" - or announce "there may be a brief intermission due to technical difficulties". These remarks aren't very funny, are they? Probably not to you as a stutterer, but they could be to others. It would be just great if you could develop a sense of humor about your difficulty. At the same time, do not go overboard and laughingly and fraudulently pretend that your stuttering is funny, as some stutterers have done, while feeling terrible about it inside.

A stutterers willingness to stutter, particularly in a modified way, is a very powerful psychological aspect of therapy that can lead to a most lasting and satisfying change in fluency.

This particularly important guideline calls for the stutterer to make a real effort to eliminate - that means stop - any and all avoidance, substitution or postponement habits which he may have acquired to put off, hide or minimize his stuttering. It is very important for the stutterer to develop speech that is avoidance-free.

This may present more of a problem than you think since much of a stutterers abnormal behavior may be traced to his efforts to postpone or avoid what he considers threatening situations. Many stutterers feel they must be ready for every eventuality so they can avoid the danger of getting stuck.

While temporarily affording relief, avoidances will actually increase your fears and cause you more trouble in the long run. They keep it aroused until time runs out or their effectiveness wears out. Stuttering will be perpetuated by successful avoidances.

Why shouldn't you avoid saying your name, or avoid answering the phone when you feel that you might stutter doing so? Or why isn't it all right to at least temporarily postpone doing something. Or why shouldn't you substitute an easier said word for one on which you might stutter. Why not?

There is one good reason for not doing these things - and it is a powerful one. The more you make a practice of avoiding, postponing or substituting, the more you will keep on using such crutches to avoid trouble and they will just reinforce your fear of stuttering. Why keep building up fear? If there is one thing the stutterer needs more than anything else, it is to reduce his fears and certainly not to reinforce them. Avoidance only makes the fear of stuttering worse.

There are many different avoidance tactics to which stutterers sometimes resort in their attempts to minimize or escape trouble; such as, dodging speaking situations, avoiding social contacts or talking on the phone, using secondary symptoms or exaggerated gestures, talking more rapidly, repeating words or going back to get a running start, talking in a monotone or sing-song voice, varying the pitch or intensity of the voice, affecting unnaturally aggressive behavior, acting like a clown, writing down what needs to be said, playing dumb or hard-of-hearing, etc.

Postponements include various stalling devices such as clearing the throat, swallowing, coughing, blowing the nose, putting in unnecessary words such as you know or I mean, or that is, or making excessive use of interjections like uh, er, well, waiting for someone to supply the word, etc. Substitutions involve using synonyms, easy words or other phrases for those on which you think you might block. Or one may sneak up on a feared word from a different direction or adopt other strategies. Postponements and substitutions are variations of avoidance practices.

As has been pointed out, stuttering is what the stutterer does in trying not to stutter. So, if you could willingly and wholeheartedly adopt an attitude of not trying to cover up or avoid, it would make a world of difference in the amount of trouble you have.

This step will require concentrated effort as it may not be easy and you need help. It is suggested that you read, study and put to work assignments such as those listed in this next section.

How to Work on Avoidances

Conforming to this rule and eliminating all your avoidance practices may be a tough assignment, but many authorities feel that a non-avoidance attitude will give a stutterer more relief than any other therapy procedure. So lets make an all-out effort to stop any and all avoidance habits or tricks you may have acquired to put off, hide or minimize your stuttering.

Your first step should be to start to work on finding out to what extent, when and how you may be using avoidances, so you will know what needs to be changed. Plan to start in the morning to observe yourself carefully as you go through the day in order to discover and identify what avoidance tricks you may be using.

Study your thought and action during the day and make notes in your workbook of what you did and why you did it. Take note of what actions or lack of action were influenced by your concern about avoiding trouble. Compile this information for several days. Possibly you will be surprised at the number of times you avoid, postpone or substitute.

Anyway, pick out one avoidance habit which you know is undesirable and decide to go to work on it, making a real effort to counteract that particular habit only. Go about it in as systematic a way as possible as you will need to watch yourself for some time to make sure that it gets adequate attention so that you won't use it any more. Make notes of your accomplishments as well as your failures. Such changes don't just happen, so don't let yourself become discouraged by the difficulties encountered. Persevere at the task.

For instance resolve that you will not substitute words. To do this you will have to watch yourself carefully because you may be doing this frequently. One way to approach a substitution problem is to deliberately use words on which you would expect to stutter. Say what you have to say and if you stutter, still persevere.

After compiling this information you should start to work on trying to correct all such practices. It might be too difficult to attempt to work on all of them at the same time, so a gradual approach might be better, although that's a matter of your own judgment.

Or for instance, there is no advantage in pretending not to hear when someone speaks to you - nor should one stand mute pretending to think of an answer - nor say that you do not know when you do know. Nor should one dodge speaking situations - or avoid social responsibilities - or give up speech attempts or leave the scene of approaching trouble.

One approach would be for you to make a point of talking more in feared situations. Possibly search out one feared situation every day and go into it, being sure to watch out that you do not back down and dodge the situation after you have determined to follow through. Then write out a description of the experience.

This does not mean that you need to volunteer to make speeches before an audience, but you will feel better about yourself when you deliberately enter more speaking situations. As you progress, you will be encouraged to participate in situations that offer a challenge. You need to talk as much as possible. Sooner or later you will have to stop running away. Now is a good time to stand and fight.

Actually, you will feel a sense of achievement by voluntarily seeking out feared words and entering difficult situations. The less you avoid, the more confidence you will have in yourself as a respectable and worthy person. In the give and take of normal life you should not back down but speak up.

Using the Telephone

Did the phone just now ring? Don't push others away so you can answer it, but if you would normally be the logical person to take the call, do so. That may be tackling your biggest bugaboo. Perhaps you say to yourself that its too much and you just can't do it. Even if you are not trying to overcome your stuttering, you can not expect to go through life always avoiding the telephone. Sooner or later you'll have to pick up that receiver and talk, and the longer you put it off, the harder it will be.

On the other hand possibly it doesn't particularly bother you to talk on the phone but you have other problems. Lets assume that you did answer that call just now when the phone rang and you talked to the person at the other end of the line. During the conversation did you come to a word on which you expected to stutter and then did you think of another way of saying it to avoid trouble on that word? Possibly you did. If so, you added another brick to the wall of your fear.

Incidentally, when you saw so-and-so the other day and you were afraid you might stutter talking to him, what did you do? How did you get around speaking to him? Did you cross to the other side of the room or did you hide from him - or did you just clam up? Unfortunately we do not know what sort of contacts or meetings you avoid.

As we said before when you run into normal situations when you would like to talk, make a point of taking advantage of them and speak up. Your opinions need to be heard as well as those of the next person and use whatever words that come to you. Plan to express your thoughts without making substitutions or revisions to avoid stuttering. If you have the determination to tackle your problems in this way, you will build confidence in yourself.

As you have had the habit of planning how to avoid trouble, now spend time planning how not to avoid trouble. At times you may fail to follow through but if you do, you should make up for such failures by entering other or similar situations in which you are afraid you might stutter. No one wins all the time but one can always recoup. In any case be honest with yourself regarding any such assignments. If you alibi you are kidding no one but yourself.

Here's an account of what one stutterer did in trying to reduce the avoidances that constantly reinforced his fears, as he tells it.

"For years I've been using every imaginable trick I could think of to keep from stuttering or to hide it when it came. Most of the time I can get away with it, but even so I live with the fear that sooner or later I will be unmasked and I usually am. But the worst of it is the constant vigilance I've got to keep, the constant sizing up of situations and sentences for signs of approaching trouble. Its like walking through a jungle alone. And I get so tired of always having to get ready to duck and dodge and cover up this constant fear.

"Anyway today, thoroughly fed up, I decided to attack the situation head-on. I began by going to a cafe for breakfast rather than the cafeteria where I've always gone so I wouldn't have to talk. I walked past the cafe three times before getting up enough courage to walk in, but I finally did.

"I found myself rehearsing my order, changing my selections so I might not stutter, but I was so disgusted with my weakness that when the waitress came I just blurted out "b-b-b-bacon and eggs!" and stuttered on purpose on bacon. I looked at her and she didn't bat an eye. Just asked me if I wanted coffee and I said again "b-b-b-bacon and eggs and coffee." I can't tell you how good I felt. For once I hadn't been a coward. If they don't like it, they can lump it! I felt strong, not weak and I sure enjoyed the bacon and eggs.

"After breakfast I was feeling so good about myself that I decided to tackle the phone which has always been my most feared situation. I wanted to find out when the buses left for Trenton, and ordinarily I might have gone to the bus station rather than phone. That phone fear is terrible and I hung up twice when they answered before saying a word. I was in such a panic I hardly knew what I wanted to say even if I could have started.

"So I sat down, smoked a cigarette, and wrote out the words "When do the buses leave for Trenton this afternoon?", put the mirror by the phone so I could see myself, dialed the number and then said it word by word. I stuttered though not as much as Id expected, and I had to say it twice because the clerk didn't understand the first time but I got the information I needed. Felt all drained out afterwards but also triumphant. I'll lick this damned thing yet."

So can you.

The fifth rule or guideline suggests that the stutterer eliminate - that is stop doing - any secondary behaviors or associated habits which he may exhibit when stuttering or in trying to avoid difficulty. Possibly you have no such irregular behaviors, although most stutterers do.

This rule does not apply to the abnormal activity of your speech muscles or mechanism which is covered under rule (7). It refers to other noticeable, unnecessary or accessory body movements which may characterize the particular pattern of your stuttering.

They are what speech pathologists call secondary symptoms and refer to actions which are not necessary for the production of speech. These include movements such as eye blinks, closings or fixations, nostril or facial grimaces, or mouth protrusions or postures, covering your mouth with your hand, head movements or scratching, jaw jerks, ear pulling, finger snapping or tapping, coin jingling, knee slapping, foot tapping or shuffling, arm swinging, hand movements or what have you.

Such irregular movements started because at one time you thought they helped you get through a block or enabled you to hide or avoid trouble. But now they may have become part of the stuttering act itself. You will be happier when you are free of any such unnecessary and unattractive actions.

Of course you could not be guilty of doing all these things, but you need to get rid of any such habits you may have. It is essential to learn how to modify and control them. But before you can tackle them, of course, you need to find out what you do.

This involves observing yourself when you stutter or when you are trying not to. You must be alert to do this because these habits are usually automatic and involuntary and thus you may not realize when these symptoms are occurring.

It's not easy to scrutinize yourself and become fully aware of habits which you have been using to avoid difficulty and which you have accumulated over the years. You cannot see yourself stuttering but you should be able to feel what you do. Or you can ask a member of your family, or a close friend to watch when you stutter and make notes after you have described what to look for.

You could start by picking out in advance some specific speaking situations which will occur today or tomorrow. Resolve to study yourself as carefully as possible on these occasions. Watch out for any unnecessary movements you make when stuttering or when expecting to. Disregard any normal gestures but make sure they are normal and not used to beat time with the speech attempt or to jerk out of your stutter.

Here's where a mirror, particularly a full-length mirror, will come in handy to help you observe yourself. If you have difficulty talking on the telephone, make some phone calls while watching yourself in the mirror. Note any or all irregular movements (or postures) associated with your stuttering. Don't skip any of them. To double check make phone calls which will be particularly embarrassing and will put pressure on you. After each situation, make a list of symptoms in your workbook.

You should have little trouble identifying and listing a conspicuous secondary symptom, but it may be a little more difficult to spot others. Stutterers can be unaware of behaviors which may be obvious to others. You may be surprised to find that you are doing something you would not do if you didn't stutter or expect to. So while you are working on this rule, make a point of observing yourself as carefully as possible. (This guideline does not suggest that a stutterer should stop using any normal gestures which he has been in the habit of using to add expression or emphasis to his conversation. In fact, normal gesturing is encouraged as long as it is not timed to a beat or timing of one's speech.)

Getting rid of any secondary symptoms you may have should be a definite goal. In doing this you will be getting rid of crutches which may have originally helped you get the word out but which can give no permanent relief.

How to Work on Secondary Symptoms

How do you go about eliminating such behavior. It may not be easy. Sometimes such a habit can be so compulsive that its almost impossible to stop. But you can stop it if you make up your mind to do so. You can't stop stuttering by willpower, but if you are determined, you can get rid of secondary symptoms by disciplining yourself to do so. But one needs to go about it in a systematic manner.

Unfortunately, there are no universal secondary symptoms which are common to all stutterers. You might blink your eyes, swing your arms, protrude your lips, jingle your coins, blow your nose, or make some kind of timing movement, etc. It could be anything. Also the problems of others may be different from yours, but that is not important since they will just be used as examples and the principles of correction outlined should apply to all such stuttering habits or tricks.

Anyway, let's start by selecting some movement you make which you would like to correct. Even if there is more than one, it is better to work on only one at a time.

One way to start bringing it under control is to consciously make such movements purposely while not talking. For instance, if you have the habit of swinging your arm in trying to talk, then it is suggested that every once in a while you swing your arm intentionally while alone and not talking. And then start talking to yourself and swinging your arm but varying its speed and action so you can feel yourself consciously doing it in a different way.

Likewise, if you have the habit of blinking your eyes, do it purposely in your accustomed manner when alone and not talking. And then, when talking to yourself, consciously and purposely vary the timing or speed of the blink. This approach to such problems is called massed practice. It calls for such things to be done purposely in a concentrated manner. Bringing such a habit under conscious control will make it easier to manage or restrain.

Practice taking over control in anxiety producing situations until you know you are the master and can skip it altogether. The basic idea is to make the behavior voluntary while it is occurring - then to vary it voluntarily - then to curtail its duration - then to stutter on the word without it. You can stop these mannerisms if you are determined to do so.

As an example you might be interested in how one stutterer eliminated a rather grotesque secondary symptom of head jerking. This is how he did it.

"I'd always hated my head jerking. Looked awful, I know, and it bothered other people but Id never been able to control it until now. It just seemed to take off when I blocked hard. I suffered from it for many years but its gone now. I've learned how to keep it out and now my fear of stuttering has gone way down and MI not stuttering much.

"Here's how I did it. It was suggested that I watch myself in the mirror when making phone calls. At first I could not bear to look at my jerking in the mirror but kept at it and finally got curious about it. So I studied it. I found that I jerked it suddenly and always to the right side. It occurred only after I tensed my jaw and neck greatly and only after a series of fast repetitions. Why did I always have to let it jerk to the right? What happened just before the jerk? I noticed that I also squinted one eye (the right one) just before it happened. I found that on my easier blockings my eye didn't squint.

"Well, then I began to change these things. I made more phone calls and tried to jerk my head in the same way but on words I wasn't afraid of, and more slowly and on purpose. Then when the real head-jerking occurred, I tried jerking it to the left or moving my head and jaw slowly rather than swiftly. I found I could change and control it and when I did, I didn't feel helpless. I got so I could change the involuntary jerk into a voluntary one.

"Then I was no longer a slave to the habit but the master. Also by slowing down the repetitions that preceded it I discovered that I could prevent it from happening. There was one other thing that I did too that helped greatly. I experimented with relaxing my jaw and neck when beginning to stutter. Couldn't always do it, but when I did I found I could keep my head steady and in control. What a relief! I've got a long way to go but at least when I stutter I'm no longer that abnormal monster I once was."

Another stutterer had a habit of tapping his foot when he stuttered, sort of beating time to the word or syllable. To find out how bad it was and exactly what he was doing, the suggestion was made that he pick out some speaking situations and count the number of times he tapped his foot when stuttering. It was most difficult for him to do this but he finally was able to get a count and discovered that they usually came on certain words or sounds when he was under stress.

Then he experimented with over-tapping more than he ordinarily would. He also practiced tapping purposely when he did not stutter, although he had to be particularly careful to be sure it was done voluntarily. The idea, of course, was to bring his compulsive tapping under conscious control. Then he worked on varying the way he tapped when he was stuttering by doing it differently than he ordinarily would. He would plan ahead of time how he would vary it so that he could have the feeling of it being under his control.

Do you get the idea? In order to work on eliminating a secondary symptom it is important to investigate it down to the smallest detail, since you need to understand what you are doing before you can expect to win the battle against any such habit. As you gain this knowledge then start to vary your behavior. It is always helpful to purposely act out your symptom (whatever it may be) when you are not stuttering.

The key to eliminating it is to get it under conscious control from an involuntary movement to a voluntary movement. If you forget and find that you are not in control then start over again. As you talk, voluntarily vary the way you do it on purpose. Practice taking over control in anxiety producing situations until you know you are the master and can skip it altogether.

The basic idea is to make the behavior voluntary while it is occurring - then to vary it voluntarily - then to curtail its duration - then to stutter on the word without it. You can stop these mannerisms if you are determined to do so.

If you are like many stutterers you do not look people squarely in the eye when you talk to them. Chances are that if you observe yourself carefully you will find that you usually avert your eyes, particularly when you are stuttering or anticipating a block. And by doing so you tend to increase any feeling of shame or embarrassment you may have about your difficulty.

Maintaining eye contact will not of itself stop your stuttering, but it will help reduce feelings of shyness or self-consciousness. It is this sensitivity which generates a lot of the tension which causes or aggravates your trouble. So this guideline calls for you to establish the habit of eye contact with whom you talk.

This doesn't mean that you need to stare fixedly at the person to whom you are talking, but still you should look the other person squarely in the eye more or less continuously. Establish eye contact before you begin to speak and continue to do so in a natural way. Particularly do your best not to look away when you stutter or expect to.

It is possible that you already practice good eye contact but more probably you are embarrassed and do not. Remember it is difficult to observe oneself so do your best to be sincerely honest with yourself. You might ask someone with whom you converse, such as a member of your family, to watch or find out if you shift your eyes just before or when you stutter.

Perhaps you look away because you are afraid that your listener will react with pity, rejection or impatience, which is not apt to be true. By using eye contact it will enable you to test the validity of your fears and it should put your listener more at ease. Moreover by maintaining eye contact you can demonstrate that you are accepting - not rejecting - your stuttering, as a problem to be solved. When you look away, you are denying the problem.

Anyway, do your best to maintain good eye contact as a habit. You will feel better for doing so, as it will help you combat those feelings of inferiority and self-consciousness. Psychiatrists recommend its use in trying to help people who are shy and bashful. Interpersonal communication is always facilitated by eye contact, even if you don't stutter. Good speakers use it naturally.

It is unnecessary to turn or hang your head in shame which may be what you are doing unconsciously when you avert your eyes. We hope you can develop a feeling of confidence that you are as good as the next person and do your best to look the world squarely in the eye.

How To Go About - Maintaining Eye Contact

Following through on this rule may represent more of a problem than you think. Many stutterers have become so shy that it is difficult for them to look anybody straight in the eye when they are stuttering. It is suggested that you double-check yourself carefully as you try the following procedures.

Start by looking at yourself in the mirror when alone and faking an easy block. Do you keep eye contact with yourself or do you avert your eyes? Try this repeatedly making sure that you don't look away. That shouldn't be too hard. Then do it when making a severe block. If you find you do not keep eye contact before and during the block, work at it until you find that you can and continue doing it.

Then make some phone calls looking at yourself in the mirror while you are having real blocks. Watch yourself until you can talk without shifting your eyes during five or more real stutterings. As one stutterer remarked, "It ain't easy," but to complete this program successfully is a necessary step.

As you become more sure of yourself it will be easier for you to maintain eye contact while talking in general conversation. This does not require that you stare fixedly or glare at your listeners, but look at them in a normal natural way, and though many of them will look away continue to keep contact.

While talking to others collect one, two, and then three occasions in which you maintain good contact when and as you are stuttering. Then make it ten occasions. As some evidence that you have followed through, it is suggested you write down the names and eye colors of ten people with whom you have stuttered, or write down ten or more words on which you stuttered without losing eye contact.

Use your ingenuity in devising other pertinent assignments. Build confidence in your ability to speak with good natural eye contact on all occasions from now on, and you will feel better for doing so. It will give you satisfaction to know that you can comply with this rule and it will make you a more effective conversationalist.

An important part of any therapy program should involve a stutterer finding out exactly what he is doing with his speech mechanism when he is having difficulty. So we want you to become aware of or identify what your speech muscles are doing unnaturally when you have trouble.

The more you study how you block on certain sounds or words, the more you will realize that you can find ways to move through them without struggling. In other words if you carefully analyze your faulty speech habits, the more you should be able to take advantage of controls which will modify or eliminate your unnatural or unnecessary actions.

Maybe you hate to even think about examining your stuttering but this information is important. And probably you have only a vague idea of how you stutter and could not duplicate your abnormalities. Possibly all you know is that sometimes you speak freely and at other times you get miserably stuck.

In any case we want you to get the feel of the actions of the muscles controlling your breath, mouth, lips and tongue so you can duplicate your stuttering and make a comparison with their action when you speak without trouble.

Assignments will include studying speech muscle actions used in the formation of speech sounds and words when stuttering as compared with their specific activity when you speak without difficulty.

To find this out you will be asked to stutter on purpose, imitating your usual pattern and observing yourself in the mirror while doing it. And also to listen to and study recordings of conversations you made when you had trouble. Such assignments may seem strange and unpleasant but progress is possible if you face up to and confront your problem, no matter how distressing it may be. Others see and hear you stutter and if they can bear with it, so can you. It isn't all that bad anyway.

Analyzing The Pattern Of Your Blocks

You are urged to conduct a self-examination and investigate your blocks so you can develop that feeling or sense of awareness of the movement and positions of your speech mechanism when you are stuttering. This applies particularly to the things that you do which are unnatural and unnecessary.

How do you conduct this self-examination? One way to get that feeling of what is happening is to stutter extremely slowly when you block. This does not refer to talking slowly - but stuttering slowly. When you anticipate trouble, go ahead and stutter but do it in such slow motion that you have time to get the feel of exactly what you are doing wrong with your speech muscles.

Keep doing this, trying to sense what happens when you block and when making the transition to the next sound until you become aware of what is happening on those sounds which give you trouble. Make note and record those things which you find are different and unnecessary.

Another way to get this information would be to repeat your blocks when you have trouble. Be courageous and stutter on them over again. But the second time go through the block in such slow motion that you can get the feel of how your speech muscles are acting up.

Using a Mirror to Check Your Stutter

If you have trouble talking on the telephone, the use of a mirror offers you an excellent opportunity of observing what you are doing wrong when you stutter. Place the mirror near the phone and located so you can watch your face closely.

Then, of course make some phone calls. If you have no one you prefer to contact, you can always call stores or offices asking for information while you monitor your stuttering. Then as you talk, watch the movements of your mouth, etc., and identify specifically the irregular or unnatural movements you make with your speech muscles.

Here again, if you can make a point of stuttering slowly, it will give you a better chance of seeing what is taking place. Also, if you can, freeze your action as you block, as it would help to make any unnatural positions more obvious. You need this information so you can imitate your actions.

When off the phone, pick out a word that gives you trouble. For example it might be your name. Anyway, such a word will have a sound in it on which you frequently block.

As you observe yourself in the mirror, stutter purposely on the word, imitating the way you get stuck, making the block as realistic as possible. Then repeat the block, stuttering on the sound or syllable only, but this time in extremely slow motion. It may be difficult to slow the stuttering down but keep working at it until you can do it slowly.

Now in order to make the comparison, utter the same sound again but correctly, trying to feel what happens when you produce the sound without stuttering as you look in the mirror. Say the syllable in slow motion many times until you become aware of the difference between the feel of your speech muscle activity when you block on it and when you say it fluently. Make notes of the things you do that are different, not normal, or unnecessary when you stutter.

This may appear complex but it should not be too difficult since you will probably find out that the way you stutter doesn't vary very much. You may find that your pattern of stuttering is more or less uniform and consistent since most stutterers tend to repeat the same abnormal postures or speech muscle movements each time they stutter.

Using a Tape Recorder to Help Check

This is where a tape recorder can be of service in studying the way you stutter so that you can imitate it. The recorder can be a small one, and inconspicuous and its use need not be embarrassing - but even if it is evident, people would generally be interested in observing how it works.

Possibly you have already made recordings of conversation when talking with friends and members of your family. It would also be desirable for you to take the recorder out and carry it around to make other recordings. If you do not want to talk with people you know, then make occasion to start conversations with strangers even if only to ask the time of day or directions while you make recordings.

As previously suggested, if you have trouble talking on the phone, you should make recordings of phone conversations in front of the mirror, sometimes freezing your articulations or continuing your repetitions, etc. Then, of course, after you have recorded conversations, play the tapes back and listen to them. Run the tapes slowly in those spots where you had trouble so you can have a better understanding of what happened.

As you repeatedly do this, mimic (silently) or pantomime the actions of your speech muscles along with the recording. You need to see and hear and be able to duplicate what you are doing when you stutter. Work at this as best you can, even if you have no recorder so you can have a much better understanding of the situation.

Now that you have discovered what you are letting your speech muscles do abnormally when you stutter, you can compare their activity with what they do when you speak fluently. Completing this step may take a substantial amount of time but keep at it until you feel you understand what you do incorrectly when you stutter.

Working to acquire the desired information of this step takes careful analysis but the more insight you have about your difficulty, the easier it will be to solve it. To give you more explicit examples of how you can check your speech muscle activities, read the next section describing how to analyze in detail what a stutterer does with his speech mechanism when he has difficulty. This section gives specific directions on how to study the errors you make. It also describes how to work on the difficulty you may encounter in trying to say your name, provided your name happens to be Peter.

How to Analyze in Detail What a Stutterer Does With His Speech Mechanism When He Has Difficulty

This section describes and demonstrates in detail how the stutterer can analyze his blocks to correct his errors. However, unfortunately, there is no way for us to know what happens in your case. But we will list here some variations of stuttering behavior which may happen with you when certain consonant sounds are uttered. This will give you a better idea of what you can do about it.

It should first be noted that all vocal expression or speech is actually made up of separate and different sounds which are combined to make words. To express it in another way, when you talk you articulate sounds which form words. In the interest of simplicity these sounds will be referred to as vowel and consonant sounds - the vowel sounds being a, e, i, etc., and the consonant sounds b, c, d, etc.

When you stutter you may think that you are blocking on a word. That is true, but more specifically you are blocking on a sound of that word or in making the transition from one sound to the next in that word. To use a simple illustration when you stutter saying b-b- b-ball you are not blocking on the word "ball" but on the consonant sound b or on the transition from b to a. Many stutterers find their greatest difficulty occurs in shifting from one sound to producing the next sound.

Among other possibilities you may find out that your airflow is sporadic or jerky; or you let all your air out first and then try to talk without sufficient breath; or you use some kind of starter noises or interjections; or you jam your lips shut and can't get them apart; or your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth; or you have rapid-fire repetitions or just repeat sounds; or you have tremors in your jaw; or you have prolongation of certain sounds, etc.

It would be impossible to describe how to correct all kinds of faulty speech behavior. To attempt such an explanation would involve too many complicated procedures exceedingly difficult to explain in writing even if we did know what happens in your case.

Trying to Say a Name

Let's try out your speech muscle activity on a sample consonant sound. For lack of a better example, lets assume that your name is Peter and you have particular trouble with the p sound and the transition to the next sound.

(Virtually every stutterer has trouble with his own name, particularly when he is called on to identify himself to someone in authority.)

For your information the p sound is called a "labial plosive." This kind of sound is correctly made by closing your lips and building up slight air pressure and then suddenly releasing the air by separating your lips quickly. Try making the sound by itself.

Anyway, now in front of your mirror, stutter badly on th p sound as you say your name putting a lot of tension into it. Then stutter on it again in the same way but this time do it in extremely slow motion so you can have an opportunity to feel what your speech muscles are doing when you block. Repeat this several times.

What happened and what did you find out? Certainly you had an excessive amount of tension but where was it principally located? Perhaps there was no passage of air because your tight lips closed the airway. Or maybe you tried to say the name without sufficient breath, or your airflow was obstructed by your tongue. Stutterers do that sometimes. Obviously, you can't talk without breath flow. Or perhaps you shut off the airflow in your throat by tightening your vocal cords excessively.

Perhaps instead of attacking the p sound directly, you hemmed and hawed, using various repetitive starter sounds like uh or er or well, etc. Or maybe you stalled and started again repeating a phrase. Because of the tension your speech muscles may have become temporarily frozen in a rigid position thus blocking any sound.

Possibly you had tiny vibrations in your lips or jaw - or possibly the sound came out p-p-p-p repetitively in sort of a bounce pattern like a broken record. Or maybe your lips were squeezed or protruded and set in a fast vibration or trembling called tremor.

Much more likely you blocked because you held your mouth in a fixed position. In other words you pressed your lips together so tightly on the p sound that you couldn't separate them and let the air escape. You couldn't uncork your mouth because you were making such a hard tight contact. Are you doing these things?

Of course you are not doing all these things and running into all these complications, but you need to write down how and where you get blocked making the p sound. You will need such a list to use as a reminder of what should be eliminated or modified.

Now still in front of your mirror say your name without stuttering, in extremely slow motion repeatedly to get the feel of the difference between how you stutter on it and how you say it without stuttering. In the latter case you will observe your tension is low and that you attack the word or sound without any starter sounds or interjections. Also when speaking normally, you don't repeat anything so there's no stopping and starting - no retrials. You have no vibrations or tremors in your lips or jaw - nor do you press or jam your lips together so hard that you cannot separate them. Feel the difference.

Anyway, let's make the assumption that your difficulty with the p sound occurred because you pressed or squeezed your lips together so tightly or firmly that the sound was blocked. What can or should you do to change or correct that habit?

You can correct it by loosening or softening the tension in your lips in order to keep the pressure from building up. When you start to say your name relax your lips so they feel weak and flabby - and then consciously control your movement so that they come together only very slightly as you utter the p sound. This is called a light contact.

To produce a light contact you have to control the action of your lip muscles so that they just barely touch with no pressure whatsoever. In this way you can consciously control the action of your lips so that they touch only lightly as you allow the air from your breath to flow between them. Practice making light loose contacts so you can get the feel of maneuvering your lip movement through the p sound.

Using this as an example you should try to figure out how you can control your speech muscle action on different sounds in order to correct or change other bad speech habits which you may have acquired. Many of them are fairly simple to understand and can be modified and corrected through the application of other corrective procedures.

Others are more complex but if you analyze your faulty speech habits carefully, it is reasonable to expect that you should be able to use controls which will modify or eliminate your unnatural or unnecessary actions.

The more you continue to study the way you stutter on the sounds and words on which you have difficulty and then compare them with how you say them fluently, the more you will realize that you should be able to move through a block more easily without struggling.

Results from Comparison

From this comparison you will find that you must have been making some unnecessary speech movements that represent part of your difficulty. Such movements would not be needed for the correct production of the sounds or words you are trying to say. So now that you have studied and know what these needless or superfluous actions are, you are in a position to work on eliminating them.

We wish we could specifically list what needs to be done in your case, but we are not familiar with the particular pattern of how you stutter. And unfortunately there are so many detail variations involved in the articulation of all sounds that it would be impossible to describe all of them.

Taking advantage of this information, the next chapters will explain how you can work on changing or correcting what is wrong by using block corrections. Even though it is impossible to conscientiously control all the speech actions involved, still by using these block corrections as described you will find that you do not need to stutter as you have been doing. We remind you again that stuttering is something you are doing and you can vary or change what you are doing.

You can change your old stuttering response into a more appropriate one. There is no need for you to spend the rest of your life struggling with blocks and making yourself miserable. Have faith in your ability to conquer your problem.

As a result of your study as completed in the last chapter, presumably you now correctly understand precisely what you have been having your speech muscles do abnormally when you stuttered. From your knowledge of this valuable information, of course, the next step is to take action to modify or correct what you have been doing unnecessarily or incorrectly. How is this done?

To answer this question it is recommended that you now practice block corrections. There are three of these which are designed to show you how you can modify or correct the errors you make when you stutter. And they will enable you to cope with your fluency disruptions and the fears associated with them.

How to work each step is described in a separate chapter. The first chapter entitled "Post-Block Correction" explains in careful detail how you can modify or correct what you have done abnormally after you have experienced a block. This is most educational and should be practiced first.

The next chapter entitled "In-Block Correction" describes how best to pull out of a block which you may be experiencing. Then the last chapter entitled "Pre-Block Correction" outlines how to prepare to move smoothly through a block which is anticipated. That is the goal toward which your efforts have been directed and describes the final step in this program.

Rule (8)

CANCELLATION

This is probably one of the best single procedures that stutterers can use in learning how to stutter less severely. It is not complicated but it does make the stutterer confront and accept his stuttering.

The best time for the stutterer to use it is immediately after he has had a block, since at that time it should be easier to feel exactly what went wrong and how it can be changed.

Accordingly, it is recommended that you now put into effect the results of your findings of how you stutter by practicing post-block corrections, sometimes referred to as cancellations. Do your best to follow through on this as it offers an opportunity for immediately revising your behavior in order to correct your errors.

Briefly, the post-block correction works as follows. After you stutter on a word, you are to pause momentarily to allow time for you to think back and figure out what you did wrong which caused the stutter and plan how to change or correct it. After which, in slow motion, you are to repeat the word in a slow, smooth, sliding, prolonged manner, correcting what was done wrong when you stuttered on it.

The extreme slowness is to give you time to make the corrections you need to make while saying it. Your slow speech is to be confined to the word on which you blocked, although there may be some carry-over. You are not to talk that way generally.

In making post-block corrections you are called on to overcorrect your faulty speech muscle movements. (For example if you block in making the 't' sound with your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth, almost reverse your action by hardly letting your tongue touch the roof of your mouth at all.)

The following section outlines the sequence of action. Study the explanation carefully to be sure that you understand exactly how the process is executed and then put it into effect when you stutter. The numbers in parentheses denote the steps in sequence.

Post-Block Correction - Sequence of Action

When you stutter on a word, the first thing you do is (1) finish saying the word on which you blocked - i.e., complete the entire word. Don't quit or use a trick to dodge it. Then (2) you have got to have the determination to pause - come to a complete stop, once the word has been uttered. The pause is to give you time to study your problem and pantomime its solution.

Despite time pressure and the feeling that you must keep going, force yourself to rest a moment. Your willingness to stop will help convince yourself as well as your listener that you are determined to be in control of the situation. Furthermore resisting time pressure helps reduce tension.

After you stop, (3) try to relax the tension in your speech mechanism, particularly in your throat. Get the feeling of your tongue lying limp in the bottom of your mouth. Let your jaw drop slightly open as if you were going to drool with your lips loose. The key is to feel the tension draining out as your breathing returns to normal.

As you relax (4) think back and ask yourself what caused you to get stuck on that sound - what did you do wrong - what did you do that was abnormal. In the past chapter you studied the mistakes you made when you blocked on different sounds and what you could do with your speech muscles to change or correct these errors. Using this information, think what went wrong when you stuttered and now (5) review what you can do to slowly reverse or change the errors you made on this particular sound or word.

Next (6) mentally rehearse or silently mimic how it would feel to have your mouth slowly make these corrections so as to modify your usual pattern of stuttering and move through the word.

(As you take time to study your blocking problem and plan how to deal with it, it may seem to you that the person to whom you are talking may lose interest in what you have to say. That is possible but stick to your guns and concentrate on working this post-block correction properly. Take your time as the pause needs to be long enough to accomplish your purpose of preparing your course of action.)

After determining what you need to do to correct or modify the errors you made - and after you have mentally rehearsed how it will feel to say the word again while making these corrections - then and only then - (7) repeat the word as you feel yourself making the corrections.

BUT, this time (8) articulate the sound on which you blocked in a slow motion prolonged manner. This will give you time to concentrate on feeling yourself correcting or at least changing the speech muscle errors you made when you stuttered. And by keeping your voice flowing it will enable you to make the transition to the next sound more easily.

In speaking in this way please remember to overcorrect your wrong speech muscle action. Change what you usually do when you block on a sound. For instance, if it calls for a light contact press so lightly that there is little or no contact. And pay more attention to how the articulation of the words feels than how it sounds.

Although this post-block correction may seem to take a long time it should not take over a few seconds. The more you do it and become adept at it the less time it will take. The slow prolonged resonant way of working your way through the sound while keeping your voice flowing will give you plenty of time to feel yourself making the corrections you need to make.

You need not be ashamed of repeating your stuttered words in this deliberate manner. The slight delay and the careful corrections will show others that you are determined to control your difficulty. Most listeners are considerate anyway and they will actually respect you for your efforts. You will need plenty of opportunity to use post-block corrections and it may help some to practice them aloud when you are alone.

Persevere in using these corrections when you stutter. Their use will help you train yourself so you can move more easily through a block. They will break up the pattern of your stuttering and help you gain confidence in your ability to control your speech.

As one stutterer expressed it, "this sounded easy but I found out a lot of time is necessary before you can count on saying the word the easy way". Another one commented, "it was pretty tough to stutter and then wait to try again, but its gotten easier. I learned more about my stuttering each time I did it".

PULL-OUT

With the post-block correction you learned how to cancel your stuttering after it had occurred. Now it is suggested that you can use a somewhat comparable method of pulling out of a block when you are in the midst of one. This is to be used in those cases where you have the need for easing out of a block with which you are struggling. What do you usually do when you feel yourself stuck in a block with no warning?

Perhaps you have tried to escape from such a block by using some intelligent procedure, but more probably you just struggle blindly, trying to force your way out, which only makes things worse, or you may resort to some release gimmick which has helped you in the past. We suggest that it would be better to use a systematic method, one that is compatible with this therapy approach, called an 'in-block' correction.

Here's the way it works. When you find yourself in the middle of a block, don't pause and don't stop and try again. Instead, continue the stuttering, slowing it down and letting the block run its course, deliberately making a smooth prolongation of what you are doing. In doing this you will be stabilizing the sound by slowing down a repetition, or changing the repetition to a prolongation, or smoothing out a tremor, or pulling out of a fixation as you ease out of the block.

In doing this you will come to realize that you can control the duration of your block by changing the rate and then learning to smooth out your stutter. Anyway, hold the stuttering long enough to feel control and figure out what you are doing wrong and what needs to be done to change your faulty actions. From your previous study you should realize what you can do to counteract your incorrect speech behavior.

After you have figured this out, then voluntarily release yourself by discontinuing the prolongation or repetitions - and in slow motion put into effect the measures you decided would reverse or correct the abnormal speech muscle action.

If for any reason you are unable to get hold of your stutter and move out of the block as described above, then it would be better for you to do a post-block correction in order for you to keep the feeling of being in control. In any case you should be able to correct what you did wrong because of what you have learned from your analysis and study of the way you stutter.

PREPARATORY SET

Presumably you have now conscientiously practiced and regularly employed post-block and in-block corrections when you stuttered. In doing this you learned new ways of responding and how to move through a block in a predetermined manner. You should now be adept at correcting your stuttering after it happens.

However, you may have felt that post-block corrections were like locking the barn door after the horse was stolen since the process did not stop the stuttering when it started. Of course you are right, but it is essential for you to have had this training because it paves the way for this next step. Obviously, you now need to learn how to make preparations to forestall your stuttering before it happens. This process of controlling your blocks before they occur is called pre-block correction.

Most of the time the stutterer anticipates when he may have trouble before it happens. In fact stuttering is sometimes referred to as an "anticipatory struggle reaction", which in effect says that the stutterer anticipates trouble and reacts by struggling to avoid it. Occasionally there is no anticipation and the blocks surprise you and this will be discussed later.

Since you usually have anticipation of difficulty before it happens we propose that you take advantage of this fact. To do so will give you an opportunity to respond to the threat of trouble by preparing for it ahead of time.

So in this step it is suggested that you learn how to cope with your stuttering by moving out ahead of a block and approaching it in a new and better way through employing these pre-block corrections. They are similar to the post-block corrections except for the fact that your planning is done before (pre) rather than after (post) the need arises.

In the pre-block correction when you anticipate stuttering on a word or sound, you are to pause just before saying the word in order to plan how you will attack it. And you do not proceed to speak the word until you have thought about how you usually stutter on the sound and figure out what needs to be done to correct or modify the errors you usually make when stuttering on that sound.

Even though this course of action is similar to the post-block process, please study the following directions carefully so you will know exactly how it should be done. It is a key part of your therapy program.

To prevent any possible misunderstanding we outline in detail how these pre-block corrections should be put into action since it will require concentration on your part. The numbers in parentheses refer to the steps in the procedure.

Pre-Block Correction - Sequence of Action

This is the exact procedure you should follow in using a pre-block correction when you approach a feared sound or word. Just as you come up to the word and before you start to say it, (1) pause - come to a complete stop. This pause before starting to say the word gives you time to calm yourself and to plan and rehearse how you will deal with the word.

This pause may cause some embarrassment, but again you have got to have the courage to follow through on this. Others have done it; you can too. The pause will not be long and a willingness to halt will convince both you as well as your listener that you are determined to be in control of the situation. Even if it takes longer the pause may be less embarrassing than your stuttering, particularly if you blunder into it blindly.

After you have stopped, (2) try to relax the tensed area of your speech mechanism including your throat. Try to get a feeling of your tongue lying limp in the bottom of your mouth with your jaw slightly open as if you were going to drool with your lips loose. See if you can get a feeling of looseness in that area.

As you relax, think back and (3) recall what you usually do abnormally when you block on that sound. What errors do you usually make when you stutter on it? You should remember these errors from the analysis and study you made of your speech muscle activity and from your experience in making post-block corrections.

Then from this review of the errors you usually make (4) figure out what corrections you had learned you could put into effect to change what you usually did wrong when you stuttered on that sound in order to help you eliminate or modify the abnormalities you make when you block on it.

Then (5) rehearse in your mind, or actually pantomime how it would feel in your mouth to put these corrections into effect saying the whole word in a slow motion deliberately prolonged manner, shifting slowly from one sound to the next. This means you are to mentally rehearse or pantomime how you will act out these changes to eliminate the errors you usually make on that sound.

As your breathing returns to normal - and not before - (6) say the word making the corrections as you rehearsed them. BUT (7) articulate the sound and word in a sliding resonant prolonged manner, exaggerating the corrections, paying more attention to how the word feels than how it sounds. Although the slow articulation may carry over to the following few words you should not talk that way otherwise.

A problem is often encountered in making the transition from the consonant sound to the vowel sound which follows. The slow prolonged manner of keeping the sounds flowing, as you utter the feared word, is designed to make that transition smooth. Also it allows you sufficient time to get the feeling of making the corrections as you slide through the sound and word. As you move slowly through the word, concentrate on getting the feel of change or overcorrecting your abnormalities.

If you are embarrassed by the pause or by the drawling way you enunciate the feared word, do it anyway! This is where your determination pays off - you have no other choice. You will find that the pause will become shorter and shorter as you become more proficient at tackling your expected blocking in this new way.

Warning - under no circumstances should you use the pause as a postponement, although it may be tempting to do so. The pause should be used to prepare and rehearse your plan of action.

This pre-block correction is an important part of your therapy program. If you can move smoothly through an anticipated block you are well on your way to speaking freely and fluently. Practice pre-block corrections on both feared and nonfeared words - or on the first word of a sentence but do not use them as a trick to get started. Some stutterers have pre-blocked on every word while they were learning the technique but that should not be necessary. The effect of a good pre-block carries over.

Select words on which you might block - figure out how you usually stutter on them - then determine what changes you need to make and apply them when you get to the word. Whenever you suspect trouble, put your controls into effect and pre-block. Continue this practice until you automatically feel what corrections are required for any type of block. This should give you a great feeling of knowing your stuttering is under control.

When you become so accustomed to using pre-block corrections that they are second nature to you, then you can start gradually eliminating the pause. When you anticipate trouble on a sound several words ahead, you can use the time during which you are saying the intervening words to prepare what you need to do when you reach the feared word.

Then put your speech into low gear (slow down) which will give you time to plan how you should make the necessary corrections. Then move slowly and smoothly through the word as you feel your way along.

This is your goal, and you may attain it fairly quickly, but until you have confidence in your ability to do it properly, it would be better for you first to stop and pause in order to allow yourself the time to make adequate preparations to deal with expected trouble.

As you get better at pre-block corrections you will be building confidence in your ability to control your speech so you can move through any block in a predetermined manner. You determine beforehand the movements you have to make and how you have to make them to form the sounds and say the words smoothly. It is important to follow through on this. Stuttering is something you do and you should now have learned how you can change what you have been doing.

If you are like many stutterers, sometimes you become quite discouraged while you are working on improving your speech. This could be because you are not getting better as quickly as you think you should, or because on occasion you relapse or regress and have a lot of difficulty.

The latter may occur when you are speaking more easily and you run into a particularly embarrassing situation and tense up and fail miserably. This makes you quite despondent and undermines what confidence you may have built up that you are making progress. Unfortunately, stuttering seems to be particularly susceptible to reoccurring. And it should be pointed out that there are several factors which are working against your efforts and which tend to cause or influence relapses or regression.

Relapses can occur because of ones natural tendencies to go back to using some of your old habits such as avoidances or denying your stuttering. You have begun to enjoy a certain amount of fluency and to protect that fluency ones natural instincts influence you to react as you have been accustomed to doing for many years. Little facsimiles of your old stuttering habits may appear.

There is no need to berate yourself when old habits reoccur. Still when this happens you should recognize them as signals to get back on the job and review your compliance with the rules. And as you take care of these little avoidance feelings or any forcings, they will go away.

One factor which may contribute to frustration is the fact that almost every stutterers severity tends to vary from time to time. Sometimes you speak more fluently than at other times. Although this may result from different environmental conditions, it seems that such deviations may persist and therefore a breakdown is more easily triggered.

Another possible drawback to improvement sometimes occurs when a stutterers hopes are built up prematurely. This may be when some particular rule or guideline you adopted caused you to make such rapid improvement that you became convinced it was the answer to your problem. And if confidence in that particular procedure is lessened by failure, it would tend to make the outlook more discouraging.

I t is true that occasionally some one rule or corrective procedure may be a large part of the answer to a stutterers problem. Generally, though, the application of the different procedures tends to assure more steady progress.

Another reason a stutterer sometimes becomes discouraged is because he wants and expects perfection which is unattainable. Some stutterers feel they should be able to talk perfectly with no hesitations or stumblings whatsoever. To expect perfection tends to build up pressure which the stutterer doesn't need. Normal speakers are not perfectly fluent and your goal should be to work for easy speech with no strain.

Besides, it is possible that you could have better natural coordination between that part of your brain that controls your speech and the timing sequence of your speech muscle action. That is also true of other people.

But there may be more reason for this being true in your case, particularly if your stuttering started when you were quite young. As a child, you may have had more hesitations or stumblings when learning to talk than other children. And some lack of better natural coordination mentioned above could have contributed to the development of your stuttering.

As you know, coordination is a physical attribute which varies with the individual. Just as some children learn to walk earlier than others, some learn to talk more easily than others. In adults, for instance, a champion golfer has superior coordination between that part of his brain which controls his body movements and their physical action in guiding his golf clubs. In any case a goal of perfection in speech is impractical for the stutterer.

Most all stutterers experience intervals of relative fluency filled with hope followed by episodes of blocking filled with despair. When relapse from fluency occurs try to learn how to identify the source of the relapse. The answer should be somewhere in this book. Check your observance of the guidelines, and whenever you talk, don't force or struggle - stutter easily.

However, we would emphasize that there is no need to feel guilty every time you stutter - that doesn't mean that you are a failure. Most stutterers get discouraged at times. Stuttering is a tough enemy and needs to be beaten down time and time again into submission. Accept this fact. Therapy may sometimes be an experience in frustration, but possibly you may be able to look on its experiences as having the possibility of revealing what might or could be done to achieve better speech.

With the high probability of relapse it is difficult to bring about fluency quickly. It takes time as the most reliable way to bring about a lasting reduction of stuttering is to do it slowly and gradually.

Let's review the situation in the next chapter.

Let's review the situation and talk about what progress, if any, you have made. Possibly you have been reading this book just to learn more about stuttering and to find out how a therapy program works. If so, we hope you have enjoyed reading it and if so you should now have a better understanding of the ramifications of this complex problem.

But assuming you are a stutterer and have been honestly trying out the procedures outlined, you should have found out that you could change your speaking behavior by letting your speech be governed by the recommendations set by the ground rules.

In starting to work this program we presume you first sincerely experimented with the therapy procedure where you talked in a slow, sliding prolonged manner which has alleviated the problem for some stutterers. If you used this slow, drawling manner of talking, it should have enabled you to communicate with less difficulty in situations where you might have had a lot of trouble. Although this method of talking probably helped you, we realize that normally you would not wish to talk that way.

At least experimenting with that procedure should have shown whether or not you had the necessary determination to follow through on procedures which would help you solve your problem. We hope you had that determination as without it you were not likely to have made much progress.

Then, supposedly you proceeded to work on the ground rules. It would be too much to have expected completely satisfactory observance with all their objectives. But if you followed these guidelines, you have found that you can control your difficulty, partly through modifying your feelings and attitudes toward your stuttering - and partly through modifying the abnormal actions associated with your stuttering behavior.

Okay, you started on the rules. In complying with some of them you were not told to stop your stuttering but were asked to make certain calming changes in your manner of talking.

For instance, you were first (1) urged to make a habit of talking slowly and deliberately. Then, even more importantly, (2) you were asked to stutter easily, gently and smoothly, easing into your words with light, loose movements of your tongue, lips and jaw. Also, it was suggested (10) that you try to vary your speech rate and loudness and speak with expression in a melodious manner.

All right, what happened? Do you now make a habit of always talking in a slow and deliberate manner? And do you make a point of stuttering easily, gently and smoothly - in as expressive and melodious a manner as possible? If you complied with these requests, you are talking with less tension and the frequency and severity of your difficulty must have lessened. That means you have made some progress.

But you still stutter. Then, to cut down on the fear of difficulty you experience you were asked to change certain habits which reinforced that fear. In one rule (3) you were told to quit trying to hide the fact that you were a stutterer - in fact openly admit that you were one. But even more importantly (4) you were to stop all avoidance, substitution or postponement habits you used to get around expected trouble. That was a tough one, too. And likewise (6) you were told to continually maintain good, natural eye contact when stuttering to help reduce feelings of shame.

Have you definitely changed your attitude and conduct so that you will now openly discuss your stuttering with anybody? Also, do you maintain good eye contact with your listener when having difficulty? And can it be assumed that you no longer try to avoid, postpone or substitute? If you have complied with these rules, you have eliminated much of the worry and anxiety which torments stutterers and increases their tension. Just to have decreased some of your fears should have made life more pleasant.

All of the above was primarily essential in helping you calm some of the tension and reduce some of the fears which are the basic ingredients causing or aggravating your trouble.

Under (5) you worked on finding out if you had any secondary symptoms accompanying your stuttering. And if you did, supposedly you worked hard to eliminate them - so hopefully, you are now rid of that part of your stuttering act. Accordingly, your stuttering was then confined to irregularities in the way you operated your speech mechanism.

Your next step under rule (7) was to make a careful study of your stuttering pattern. To do this it was necessary to accurately duplicate what you had your speech mechanisms do when you stuttered. Accordingly, by monitoring your speech you obtained a, clear understanding of what you did irregularly or abnormally with your speech muscles (lips, tongue and jaw) which was wrong and not needed in the production of speech.

Having obtained this valuable detailed information about your wrong speech muscle actions, you were asked to modify or eliminate these wrong speech actions by employing block corrections. These key procedures (8) were not easy to work but were organized to eliminate or modify the articulatory errors which you made when stuttering.

They were designed to help you guide your speech muscle movements easily and smoothly into, through and out of your blocks by substituting new patterns for old habits. In other words they should have helped you to eliminate or modify the irregular actions which characterized your stutter.

Theoretically that eliminated your stuttering, but practically, it should have at least helped you to speak without much or all of the blocking maneuvers you previously experienced. Habits which you have learned can be unlearned.

The other rules not mentioned above were part of your program and we assume were not overlooked. One of them (9) urged that you keep your speech moving forward with no repetitions or back-tracking so as to keep continuous voicing progress.

Another (11) advocated that you pay more attention and think more about what fluency you had. You have worried about and brooded over your stuttering long enough. And if you have made a point of feeling what fluency you have, the more it should have helped you to build confidence. And obviously, it is presumed (12) that you have tried to talk as much as possible as otherwise you would not have made the opportunities you needed to work on your speech.

The above briefly summarizes the results which we hope you were able to accomplish in following the twelve rules or guidelines. Have you given it time? Where are you now? See next chapter for conclusions.

If you have done your best to comply with all these guidelines, you have completed this therapy program. We don't know how fluent you have become - possibly you have come a long way - possibly you haven't. This book only describes an approach which will work. You are the one who has produced the results.

In following this program supposedly you now willingly admit that you are a stutterer and hopefully have eliminated any avoidance habits you may have had. This should have helped relieve a lot of your anxiety and helped you develop more self-confidence and increased your ability to tolerate stress.

Also if you have learned nothing else, you should have found out that you can change your way of talking. That's for sure. And if you can vary the pattern of your stuttering, you can learn to control it. You want and need that feeling of control which enables you to talk easily and comfortably.

And if you had the patience to stick to your guns in this program we'll bet you're glad that you didn't back out. But even for those who have made rapid progress we advise caution. Strange as it may seem you may need to adjust to fluent speech.

You may need to monitor your speech as you become fluent, depending on your reactions. For instance you might start talking so fast that you do not become aware of avoidances or struggles that could develop. Furthermore since you have not been accustomed to talking freely, any inability to express yourself in managing phrases or sentences may cause you to lose confidence in your way of talking.

As has been pointed out, unfortunately, stuttering seems to be particularly susceptible to reoccurring. You will need to guard against slipping back into old habits. Habits which you acquired years ago and which have been performed for many years can reinstate themselves if you aren't careful. You could at times be confronted with old fears.

If you should be confronted with such fears, the most important point for you to remember is that a willingness to stutter in a modified way can be a tremendous factor toward sustaining and reinforcing your fluency.

Also to help prevent backsliding or regression be careful and do your best to make certain that your speech is governed so that you talk in accordance with the ground rules. These common sense measures can always help you communicate with less stress and strain. And be sure that you do not start avoiding.

If you should run into any usual difficulty you can always use block corrections. It might be well to review and practice them occasionally anyway, since you may always be able to use them to advantage.

Actually as time passes on, you should continue to gain confidence in your ability to control your speech. And the more confidence you have, the more freedom from fear you will experience.

On the other hand don't expect or claim too much. Don't be too anxious to talk too well too soon and don't make excessive demands on your speech which will be impossible to achieve. And don't be fooled into thinking that just because you don't stutter that that automatically makes you witty, charming and persuasive.

If someone says you are cured, don't feel that you have to prove it. Instead tell him or her that you still stutter and actually show them that you can do so by stuttering voluntarily. If you always call yourself a stutterer you will be under no pressure not to be one. Remember stuttering is largely what the stutterer does trying not to stutter.

Your speech, like others, doesn't have to be perfect. Most people are disfluent and don't have verbal perfection - ex-stutterers or not. Stuttering is a stubborn handicap and if you have conquered it to the extent that you have freedom from fear, you can no longer claim it as a handicap. Therapy is a challenge as life is a challenge. Have faith in yourself.

And if you have just been reading this book for information, we would again point out that there is no reason for you to spend the rest of your life stuttering helplessly and making yourself miserable. Others have prevailed and so can you. Program yourself for success and have confidence in your ability to achieve it.

The End

Life's battles don't always go
To the strongest or fastest man;
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!