EMERGENCE

In her excellent site http://closetstutterer.blogspot.com/ ; Closet stutterer Sophie mentions working on what doesn’t immediately seem to be her stammering but to work on other issues. An excellent idea. It gets away from the chicken and egg situation I wrote of earlier.

Think of a cake, I like a rich fruitcake like a Christmas cake. What is the cause of the cake?
Not the baker who only brings the ingredients together in a time and tested way to allow the cake to emerge. Not the ingredients as each stands. There is no cause in raisins where the effect is a cake, and so on. The ingredients are brought together and mixed in a bowl. Now try to get the sugar out or the eggs; can’t be done. The mix is different to the sum of each ingredient. Not more than, just different – it can be an unwanted result!!

Also, to think of each ingredient: how fresh is it; how much is needed – we don’t want too much of any single part; what is the balance between the parts – we don’t want it overcooked.

Sometimes only one ingredient is overdone, sometimes they can be overdone in different proportions but the result is often unwanted and we can change what we employ and how we use it.

We can't look at the ingredients and say what they will cause; only a coming together of ingredients will allow a cake to emerge.

You get the idea.

To think that any behaviour is simple is to miss a lot and if we don’t look we wont see.

Stammering isn't curable any more than blushing is curable, we need to think differently and then it isn’t an issue and doesn’t emerge. But I agree with Sophie it is easier said than done.

Chicken or Egg

Stammering is interesting because the performance of the speech seems to cause the nervousness that accompanies the stammer. Or being nervous causes the stammer; or knowing that one might stammer causes the nervousness that causes the stammer.

If we take the view that there is no such thing as cause-effect then what?

The stammering speech is the nervousness. Neither causes the other. They are the same thing. The nervousness is the stammering speech. Is it not?

Comfortable rather than fluent?

What do I mean by comfortable? Well, to be unaware of discomfort.
Do you feel comfortable when looking in the mirror?
Can you comfortably speak out loud when you are looking in the mirror?
Can you speak comfortably when alone?

If that is the case and you speak comfortably and not stammeringly then is your response to other people the big issue?

Hesitation

My mother used to describe PWS as people having a hesitation and I wondered if mothers’ wisdom might be worth looking into.

The wonderful www.onelook.com online dictionary (add the link to your favourites) describes hesitation as:

noun: the act of pausing uncertainly
noun: indecision in speech or action
noun: a certain degree of unwillingness

and

to hesitate as:

verb: pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness

verb: interrupt temporarily an activity before continuing

Uncertainty, indecision, unwillingness and interruption: all of these suggest being in two minds or changing what is being thought about, at least.

Watch people speaking in a non-scripted program on TV or listen on the radio. Do they speak their minds literally or do they mentally rehearse the sentence before they say it?
No, they don’t have time for rehearsal they just say what comes to mind. When they think they simultaneously speak. They speak their thoughts and don’t second guess themselves or what is going on. There is a place for second guessing but it isn’t while speaking.

Our brains works too fast for our bodies so just doing one thing at a time allows us to keep up. I am typing this and if I start to think of where the letters are on the typewriter and at the same time wonder if I am getting them right even before I touch them, not to mention keeping to my train of thought, my failure rate rockets and I hesitate repeatedly!

If we attempt to rehearse each sentence before we speak we will speak in the same way as we think - all over the place - after all, when will we know that the rehearsal is complete.

When alone try looking in the mirror and speak about your feelings to the person looking back.

I could try to polish this post till I thought it was perfect for purpose but good enough for purpose will have to do. And I can always come back to the topic and clarify anything I think needs it. Similarities for speech?