How do you go beyond “Pull out”
My question is specified for Professionals that treat and believe in Stuttering Modification or in any treatment that dont try to eliminate the stuttering moment.
The question is, how do you go beyond “Pull out”.
That mean, the ability to stutter and to get out from it ,really improved my life dramatically I have difficulties sometimes doing it,but in general i have a lot less problem to stutter,cause i know I would get out from it.
The question is, how I can progress?
How I can feel the stuttering coming,and stutter easy, before i tense and I need to get out from it?
Ari (geashono@gmail.com)
Ari, that’s a very good question and one that is raised in therapy quite often. For many, the use of easy stutters requires a change in speaking pattern. That is, when people use easy stuttering in therapy sessions, their overall speech is usually different than it is during everyday conversation. Using some voluntary easy stutters is one way to get into the desired speech pattern.
Ari, I agree with what Dale has written. In addition, see Vivian Sisskin’s comments to another post to the thread “Automatic Speech as a Part of Communication”, where she talks about attempts to suppress stuttering interfering with forward moving speech. Reducing any behaviors or ‘tricks’ that are used to avoid or blast through a block may go a long way to reducing the physical tension that so often accompanies stuttering. This may result, in the end, with stuttering that is easier/less tense, and that interferes with communication to a much lesser degree.
All the best, Lynne Shields
Thanks Lynne and Dale about your responses.
Lynne:I am a big fan of Joseph Sheehan Philosophy (probably the NO 1 in Israel),i learned from him a lot.I reduced a lot of my avoidance’s including things I thought were part of my stuttering and I figured up that I don’t need to stutter using them.Like repetition of the sound before the stuttering and silent blocks in order not to show my stuttering and more….
The problem that stand now,is that the tensing part that I still do,is a very strong habit,and it happen every time i feel the stuttering coming .
I succeed to weak it ,but it still there.
Dale,I started to stutter voluntarily more than before(before I talked about it, more than i did it).It is difficult for me to remember doing it,but with strong motivation I hope to succeed.
Ari, thanks for your question and it’s nice to hear that you have had some positive life changes.
When learning or practicing a new speech management technique, I believe it is easier when your emotion about having a stutter is lower, the social context is less demanding, and you feel more in control. This may occur for you on voluntary stutters with a certain person. Therefore, practicing saying a speech sound with less tension that you are not anticipating stuttering on could be helpful with the mechanical or movement aspects of the speech technique. This can be practiced on sounds, words, reading, conversation, etc.
Another aspect of increasing your ability to feel the stutter about to happen is to increase your ability to feel how your speech structures are moving when you are speaking fluently. When you are just slightly more aware how your speech structures move during fluent speech, you may be able to feel that something feels different moments before a moment of stuttering may happen.
It can be hard and perhaps unrealistic to anticipate and feel a moment of stuttering every time before a stutter occurs. Sometimes you may actually be focusing on saying what you want to say rather than how your saying it! So when this happens, using a pull-out (as you are doing) are handy. Importantly, I have seen that pull-outs may become (overtime) very short in duration and barely noticeable. At this point, they may appear as if the speaker managed the stutter before really getting stuck at all and has moved beyond pull-outs. So, I would encourage you to not go completely beyond your pull-outs. Continued practice of pull-outs on real and voluntary stutters may be beneficial.
Hi Ari,
Many of my clients are able to reduce escape behaviors and do well stuttering directly on the intended sound. But as you explain, there is still quite a bit of tension during disfluencies. The value of pull-outs is that they can help you to make choices (with the help of proprioceptive feedback) to reduce tension and move through disfluencies more comfortably. While most PWS are successful in doing this in the therapy room or in low-feared situations, this is too difficult in daily speech. This is because of the fear of stuttering and the strong desire to hide the struggle/tension, even when one is ok with the idea of showing oneself as a PWS. This “holding back” from showing struggled stuttering contributes to more struggle and makes a pull-out practically impossible for some.
At this stage, it might be a good idea to focus on desensitizing to the “fear of struggling” in order to reduce reactivity and resulting tension. It might sound strange, but if you “plan to struggle” and “give yourself permission to struggle” you won’t hold back and tension will decrease. So, in sum, pull-outs are a good way to practice reducing tension in a safe environment, but you will be better able to utilize them in spontaneous speech when reactivity to struggle is down. When you bust the shame, pull-outs are effective!
Vivian
David:As I see it ,when I speak fluently I don’t expect to stutter ,so I just speak,but it is not helping me when I feel the stutter.
Cause I feel it before the stuttering really appear,and the true is that I create the stuttering itself.
Some people would say so don’t do it ,but this is automatic response and it is very hard to break.
So the solution as i see it,is to learn to respond differently when I feel the stuttering come,and for it Voluntary stuttering could help.
Vivian,I think that your advice is perfect for me.
Cause I don’t have a lot of problem showing my stuttering(now ),but i defiantly feel very bad when i struggle.
Thanks for your responses!
Ari
geashono@gmail.com