Daily Communication Strategies
Hi, I’m Jessica, and I’m currently a speech-language pathology student. I’d love to hear from people who stutter about the strategies or techniques you find most helpful for managing your stutter in everyday conversations. What approaches have you found to be most effective or empowering in your day-to-day communication?
Hi Jessica
I’ve tried most things out there. Even hypnosis, carrying pyrit (stone) in my pocket, whispering, you name it. 😉 But what suits me the most is what comes as close to my regular speech, and my personality. So for me that’s pausing and making shorter sentences, a slightly slower speech, slightly more articulating, a slightly lower pitch. But also using body language, courses in presentation, singing, Mindfulness and NLP, self-worth exercises and affirmations, challenging myself and standing up for myself. And also to keep calm and stutter on. As it’s up to me how I chose to speak, and this can vary from moment to moment.
As I use to say: a smörgåsbord with options, for me to try and see what is right for me.
Keep them talking
Anita
Hi, Jessica. Thank you for this interesting question!
The strategies that I have personally found most helpful have changed substantially over the years.
For decades I was obsessed with fluency shaping, and I had the most success with the (now-defunct) Precision Fluency Shaping Program – which retrained people who stutter to speak fluently with well-practiced techniques of relaxed diaphragmatic breathing, gentle onsets, loudness contouring within syllables, and slight stretches/stabilizations of initial voiced sounds.
I was able to enjoy many extended periods, lasting for weeks or sometimes for months, by intensive daily practice and constant monitoring of these techniques.
But every period of fluency ended with relapse – as I discovered that the practice necessary for me to maintain this fluency was just overwhelming.
Eventually, I changed course, and simply and calmly accepted myself as a person who happens to stutter, a person with a speech difference. And life became so much more satisfying for me, and more pleasurable – relieving all the pressure to transform myself into a fluent person. I now realized that life happiness is not dependent on consistency of fluent speech. Okay, so I don’t happen to have consistency of speech fluency. So what? I can simply accept myself as I have been, as I am, and as I will continue to be – a person who just happens to stutter.