Suggestions for Self-Therapy for Stutterers

Dear Fellow-Stutterer: If you are an adult who has stuttered most of your life, you have probably tried many ways to cope with the problem. So have I. As a stutterer and a therapist, my obser­vation is that each person finds his own way. There are a multitude of approaches to the correction of stut­tering. The procedure I suggest is not necessarily the “best” approach; it is simply an approach that has been effective for me and for most of the individuals with whom I have worked. It is a direct attack on the speech and it involves effort. Many people resist the work aspect and want easier ways to overcome the problem. The feelings of anxiety that accompany stuttering have become so overwhelming that the stutterer reacts by wanting a simple way with immediate results. Drug therapy to relieve anxiety and mechanical devices to block your own hearing or to supply you with rhythmic patterns are easy methods which seem immediately beneficial. I believe that nothing succeeds on a long term basis like hard work on the speech itself, an idea that may be due to the very personal viewpoint of anyone who is both a therapist and a stutterer. My own experience has been that nothing “cures” an adult stutterer, but one can effectively manage stuttering so that it ceases to be a significant problem throughout one’s life.

 

Why does this approach require work? Because speech, like walking and other body functions, is acquired early in life and becomes habitual long before school age. Those of us who stutter have learned both fluent and stuttered forms of speech which have be­come automatic. You, as a stutterer, must study your speech patterns in order to become aware of the differences between stuttered and fluent speech. Stuttered forms of speech can be changed in various ways, just as hand­writing can be modi­fied. It is this changing of an established habit that requires work.

 

Several psychological problems confront the stutterer as he tries to alter his speech. These problems include a lack of confidence in his ability to do anything with his stuttered speech because of previous failures, an inability to cope with feelings of resentment and loneliness about having this problem (why me?), and worry and concern about the effect of his stuttering on other people and their possible resulting opinions of him. In addition, the stutterer struggles with the idea that because he can say his words fluently some of the time, he should be able to say them fluently all of the time. He may believe some psychological problem needs to be removed, and this belief results either in periodic over-worry about his speech or complete disregard for it. These feelings which have become automatic, as has the stuttering, usually are the painful part of stuttering. This is why you may feel the need to first work on eliminating the feelings you experience when you stutter. However, it is easier to work on the speech first, and the feeling next, because much of the accompanying emotion disappears when you have gained control of your speech.

 

 

Your goal should be to find a way of speaking that is comfortable for you. You will need to eliminate the abnormality of your stuttering and try to find an easier way to talk which is under your control.

 

Study your speech. Learn to change the habitual form of stuttering to a more controlled pronunciation of the word. Change your speech to include fluent speech, pauses and the controlled saying of words, as well as occasional stuttering.

 

To study your speech, analyze how you say words both fluently and in a stuttered form. You may think of a word as being a unit or “lump” of sound; actually a word is composed of separate sounds, much as a written word consists of separate letters. To say a word you must move from sound position to sound position with your speech articulators shaping the air that carries the voice. Learn to be aware of the feeling of muscle action as you move through a word. When a word is said fluently these muscular movements are coordinated, loose and easy.

 

When you stutter, you will notice that there is a great deal of tension in the speech muscles used to say the beginning sound. Much of the abnormality of stuttering is your automatic reaction to the feeling of the sudden muscle tension that you experience as a “blocked” feeling. You try to fight the blocking by pushing harder, rather than by releasing the tension and moving to the rest of the word. As you say an isolated word beginning with a B or P, for example, concentrate on the feeling of movement as you bring your lips together and as they move to the next sounds. In the habitual stuttering pattern the muscles will either tighten and then release to bounce back to the same position, or will jerk forward to the rest of the word. This is in contrast to a fluent saying of the first sound which will have loose contact of the lips and a smooth shift to the next sound position.

 

Study your conversational speech. You may stutter more in connected speech than when you say single words. Such factors as the speed of speaking and word position in a sentence can influence how a word is said, and can precipitate stuttering. Stutterers have a good deal of fluent speech as well as stuttered speech. Learn to be aware of the feeling of fluency and the sensation of fast, easy movement of the muscles involved in speech. These movements are interrupted only to take a breath, or to pause for meaning. When a pause for stuttering occurs, you may notice that the rate of speech increases after the block as if to “make up” for lost time. Sometimes this increased speed produces a rapid, jerky speech pattern that is difficult to understand. Stutterers usually hurry in their speech more than normal speakers do. You may want to consider changing the rate of both your fluent and your stuttered speech.

 

How do you practice changing the habitual form of stuttering to a controlled pronunciation of words?

 

Begin with single words. Watch in a mirror as you place your mouth in position to say the first sound of the word. Move slowly and gently from sound to sound through the word. Practice this silently, whispering, and then aloud as you learn to feel the sensation of relaxed movements of the lips, tongue, and throat. Through awareness of muscle movement you can control your speech production even when talking to other people and are unable to use a mirror.

 

Read aloud to yourself. Say each word in the sentence as if it were an isolated word. Be highly conscious of the feeling of movement through the word.

 

Practice saying words directly using a talking-and-writing technique. Write the first letter of the word as you begin to say the word and prolong the first sound until you have completed the written letter. This slow first movement of the word will train you to combat the excessive muscle tension which automatically occurs at the beginning of stuttered words.

 

Try to learn a new speech pattern which can be used in every day speaking. You may have noticed that one of the important factors which influences the amount of stuttering in your everyday speech is your feeling of inner stability. This feeling is what you experience as self-confidence, calmness and self-control. Many influences from the environment, or from your physical state, can affect your equilibrium. Most of these environmental influences are beyond your control. However, you can change to a speech pattern that is under your voluntary control, rather than responding to the pressures with habitual tense and stuttered speech. This pattern should consist of your fluent speech, which you refuse to hurry, and your careful, relaxed, controlled speech. By using your awareness of muscle movement to guide your lips, tongue, and throat from sound to sound throughout the word, much as in writing, you can reduce much of the abnormality and tension that occurs in a stuttered word. Use of this controlled pronunciation on some of the fluent words as well as the stuttered words can keep a smooth speech pattern. This takes work, but can become habitual in many situations.

 

Your over-all goal is to find a way of speaking that is comfortable for you. This should include the following ideas:

 

 

Stuttering is a life-long problem which improves with age. As a stutterer you can gain great satisfaction in watching yourself acquire better and better control of speech as you work on it.