Jason
12-06-2007, 08:01 AM
OK below is what I use, its going to be quite long and may take me a few days to finish so please be patient.
The general concept of this.
What is a stutter?
Stuttering, also known as stammering in the United Kingdom, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases; and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds.
This is what a stutter is. However over time a person develops their own ways of coping with their stutter. I for example shut my eyes and for a while it worked. However it stopped working yet I still did it. I tapped my finger and spoke on the beat for a while but again it was only a short term fix. I used to fidget a lot to take the focus away from my face. I still do it quite a bit however I am making every effort to stop it.
As you grow older the chances are that you will have attached one or many such coping strategies to yourself. Its a natural thing to do, if you cannot swim and you are dumped in the sea you thrash your arms and legs in an attempt to stay afloat. What you don't realize is that while the thrashing briefly keeps you up it really won't save your life. Or in the case of speaking, these short-term coping strategies won't help you become fluent. Instead you will begin to look odd.
On a previous speech course I was recorded on a camcorder. At the beginning of the course I wasn't sitting still, I was rocking in the chair, fidgeting. When I hit a block I leaned forwards and closed my eyes. I'm sure there was a bit of a facial expression there as well. These were all things which I had previously used to get by. This was the equivalent to me thrashing in the water.
At the end of the course the same thing was done again. I still stuttered, however I was sitting still, looking at the camera and when I stuttered there was less tension and I eased out words instead of forcing them. I looked like a completely different person. The difference between the two was that course had effectively taught me how to swim, I had some techniques and experience of talking.
Unfortunately, stuttering is not just a trouble with fluency, the severity is linked with stress and nervousness. If I go into a room of complete strangers unprepared and am asked to give a speech I would fail, not just fail but fail terribly. While I am getting better I am not perfect and I still am no where near being comfortable in situations I find highly stressful.
This is what you need to know before we begin. A person who has just learned to swim doesn't try to swim the english channel. They stay in the shallow end of a swimming pool and gain experience. if they hit the deep-end or sea to long then they may panic and do something stupid like flapping their arms again.
If you want to take this advice be aware that should start off in easy situations. Even if you are a 100% comfortable in a situation, practicing speaking more slowly and keeping eye contact is still a very valid thing to do. Running into the situation you most fear will not help you and if anything will discourage you from doing anything.
Furthermore it is common for you to get a little worse before you improve. Relax its normal. You are thinking more about your speech than usual and thus the problem has arose. Don't worry about it. Give it some time and I'm sure you will find that you will leap ahead in your quest for fluency.
General Stuff
1. Speak Slowly
This is very important. If you are speaking very quickly then you will unable to make any changes to your speech. By speaking slowly you have more control over the sounds you are making. What you do can be analyzed closely and it is possible to see where you are going wrong.
How slowly should you be speaking? You want to keep the flow between syllables. If your speak becomes bitty then you are speaking too slowly. "Iwantadog" Instead of I-Want-A-Dog. See how slow you can get before people start start to notice it. I speak half the speed that I did originally.
2. Remove Stress where you can.
There will always be stress in your life. However some of it can be removed. Get up a bit earlier, get ready the night before. Shop for christmas presents ahead of time instead of on Christmas Eve. All of these things reduce your stress levels which affect your stutter.
Analyze
Constantly think about what you are doing when you stutter. How are you stuttering, where is the tension, when do you stutter, how does your stutter manifest itself. What does my face do when I stutter, what does my chest feel like. What do I look like?
You need to fully identify the problem before you can fix it.
Learn to Communicate.
1. Eye Contact
Good communicators keep eye contact, by looking at the person you are speaking to, you will find that conversations are more comfortable and conversations will have greater meaning. For whatever reason people that stutter often have a torrid time with eye contact. You should do everything you can change this. By not keeping eye contact you come across as rude, I see this as one of the reasons why people that stutter get negative responses when speaking to people.
2. Facial Expressions.
No, stop it. Speak into a mirror or camera for a long time and watch yourself. If you are pulling faces by trying to force out words then focus on not doing this. These facial expressions are not part of your stutter, these are coping strategies which are going wrong.
Another negative response to stuttering is laughter. More often than not it is not the stuttering which is funny. It is what stutter's do when they stutter. You do not need to make these faces and you should try to phase these out. To phase these out you need to stay alert, when you are doing it you need to stop immediately, then continue without doing it. Within a few weeks you should have completely phased it out.
3. Other stuff
Above are the 2 main things, however there are other things, fidgeting, tapping fingers, swaying etc. Where you can these should be phased out. When speaking to someone you should be focused on the person you are speaking to. Fidgeting and the such convey the sense that you are bored. This will make the listening less willing to give you their time.
Avoidance
1. Say what you want to say.
With a stutter you might not be able to fully control the delivery of what you say. However you can control the content. You will be far easier to understand if all you say is what you intend to say. This means do not use filler or starter words (um, er etc). While these words may help you to get started they only detract from what you are saying.
2. Try not to avoid situations
if you begin to start avoiding situations you will start to build up a fear for this situation. For example. if you do not pick up a phone because you are nervous. The next time it rings you will be even worse. If you are fearful of something then it is best to just do it. You may stutter but at the end of the day it will be over and done with. With time situations which cause you stress will become less of an issue as you continue to face them head on.
The general concept of this.
What is a stutter?
Stuttering, also known as stammering in the United Kingdom, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases; and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds.
This is what a stutter is. However over time a person develops their own ways of coping with their stutter. I for example shut my eyes and for a while it worked. However it stopped working yet I still did it. I tapped my finger and spoke on the beat for a while but again it was only a short term fix. I used to fidget a lot to take the focus away from my face. I still do it quite a bit however I am making every effort to stop it.
As you grow older the chances are that you will have attached one or many such coping strategies to yourself. Its a natural thing to do, if you cannot swim and you are dumped in the sea you thrash your arms and legs in an attempt to stay afloat. What you don't realize is that while the thrashing briefly keeps you up it really won't save your life. Or in the case of speaking, these short-term coping strategies won't help you become fluent. Instead you will begin to look odd.
On a previous speech course I was recorded on a camcorder. At the beginning of the course I wasn't sitting still, I was rocking in the chair, fidgeting. When I hit a block I leaned forwards and closed my eyes. I'm sure there was a bit of a facial expression there as well. These were all things which I had previously used to get by. This was the equivalent to me thrashing in the water.
At the end of the course the same thing was done again. I still stuttered, however I was sitting still, looking at the camera and when I stuttered there was less tension and I eased out words instead of forcing them. I looked like a completely different person. The difference between the two was that course had effectively taught me how to swim, I had some techniques and experience of talking.
Unfortunately, stuttering is not just a trouble with fluency, the severity is linked with stress and nervousness. If I go into a room of complete strangers unprepared and am asked to give a speech I would fail, not just fail but fail terribly. While I am getting better I am not perfect and I still am no where near being comfortable in situations I find highly stressful.
This is what you need to know before we begin. A person who has just learned to swim doesn't try to swim the english channel. They stay in the shallow end of a swimming pool and gain experience. if they hit the deep-end or sea to long then they may panic and do something stupid like flapping their arms again.
If you want to take this advice be aware that should start off in easy situations. Even if you are a 100% comfortable in a situation, practicing speaking more slowly and keeping eye contact is still a very valid thing to do. Running into the situation you most fear will not help you and if anything will discourage you from doing anything.
Furthermore it is common for you to get a little worse before you improve. Relax its normal. You are thinking more about your speech than usual and thus the problem has arose. Don't worry about it. Give it some time and I'm sure you will find that you will leap ahead in your quest for fluency.
General Stuff
1. Speak Slowly
This is very important. If you are speaking very quickly then you will unable to make any changes to your speech. By speaking slowly you have more control over the sounds you are making. What you do can be analyzed closely and it is possible to see where you are going wrong.
How slowly should you be speaking? You want to keep the flow between syllables. If your speak becomes bitty then you are speaking too slowly. "Iwantadog" Instead of I-Want-A-Dog. See how slow you can get before people start start to notice it. I speak half the speed that I did originally.
2. Remove Stress where you can.
There will always be stress in your life. However some of it can be removed. Get up a bit earlier, get ready the night before. Shop for christmas presents ahead of time instead of on Christmas Eve. All of these things reduce your stress levels which affect your stutter.
Analyze
Constantly think about what you are doing when you stutter. How are you stuttering, where is the tension, when do you stutter, how does your stutter manifest itself. What does my face do when I stutter, what does my chest feel like. What do I look like?
You need to fully identify the problem before you can fix it.
Learn to Communicate.
1. Eye Contact
Good communicators keep eye contact, by looking at the person you are speaking to, you will find that conversations are more comfortable and conversations will have greater meaning. For whatever reason people that stutter often have a torrid time with eye contact. You should do everything you can change this. By not keeping eye contact you come across as rude, I see this as one of the reasons why people that stutter get negative responses when speaking to people.
2. Facial Expressions.
No, stop it. Speak into a mirror or camera for a long time and watch yourself. If you are pulling faces by trying to force out words then focus on not doing this. These facial expressions are not part of your stutter, these are coping strategies which are going wrong.
Another negative response to stuttering is laughter. More often than not it is not the stuttering which is funny. It is what stutter's do when they stutter. You do not need to make these faces and you should try to phase these out. To phase these out you need to stay alert, when you are doing it you need to stop immediately, then continue without doing it. Within a few weeks you should have completely phased it out.
3. Other stuff
Above are the 2 main things, however there are other things, fidgeting, tapping fingers, swaying etc. Where you can these should be phased out. When speaking to someone you should be focused on the person you are speaking to. Fidgeting and the such convey the sense that you are bored. This will make the listening less willing to give you their time.
Avoidance
1. Say what you want to say.
With a stutter you might not be able to fully control the delivery of what you say. However you can control the content. You will be far easier to understand if all you say is what you intend to say. This means do not use filler or starter words (um, er etc). While these words may help you to get started they only detract from what you are saying.
2. Try not to avoid situations
if you begin to start avoiding situations you will start to build up a fear for this situation. For example. if you do not pick up a phone because you are nervous. The next time it rings you will be even worse. If you are fearful of something then it is best to just do it. You may stutter but at the end of the day it will be over and done with. With time situations which cause you stress will become less of an issue as you continue to face them head on.