Some conditions that tend to disrupt speech:

• Rate or rhythm of speech
• Fear of stuttering, speaking, or words
• Shame
• Pressure to speak
• Anxiety
• Physical and mental tension
• Lack of control
• Faulty breathing

Over the years this concept of stuttering has become deeply ingrained in the psyche of most people who do and do not stutter. Today it is the basis for most treatments, coping strategies, and advice for people who stutter. In fact it has become so ingrained that ideas that do not fit into this concept are often rejected or not considered serious enough to be investigated.

Over the past 20 years, while treating people who stutter, a different concept became apparent to me. I realized that there was more to stuttering than meets the eye or ear. The “how” stuttering is created started to emerge. I’d like to share this concept with you.

Within each speaker there is a speech production system and, as in all systems, the way it functions determines the outcome. I came to see stuttering as a breakdown in the way the speech system functions. The result of this breakdown is the variety of symptoms that people who stutter may exhibit.

Symptoms of a breakdown in the speech production system:

• Repetitions, prolongations and blocks in speech

• Facial tension
• Eye blinks
• Loss of eye contact
• Body tension
• Emotional tension
• Low self-esteem
• Uncontrollable movements of body and speech muscles
• Poor vocal quality
• Unclear speech
• Unusual pausing
• And many others

Fortunately, many people have helped me understand stuttering. First and foremost, I have learned so much from listening to and closely observing my clients, and other people who stutter, stuttered and never stuttered. I have also learned a lot from studies on the brain functions of people who stutter, neuroplasticity, and from researchers such as Levelt (1989) who describes how normally fluent speech is developed, as well as Smith & Kelly (1996); Watson, et. al. (1997) who through their research have also come to look at stuttering from the perspective of system function.

It is difficult to change ingrained concepts, because it is human nature to stick with the way we see things. I believe this is the reason that therapy for stuttering has not changed much in 60 years. The focus of therapy then and now is on stuttering as speech, rather than on the process of producing speech. Over and over again we hear that there are two basic treatment approaches – stuttering modification and fluency shaping. You either learn to live with stuttering or learn how to control or modify stuttering/fluency/speech.

There is an alternative stuttering therapy that doesn’t try to solve the problem by treating the symptoms. It focuses on how all of the processes of speech production interact, as well as on all the factors that influence the way the brain functions. I call this a speech processing approach. In this approach the focus is on changing brain functions so that speaking is virtually effortless and automatic. The treatment guides people who stutter to use their system according to Levelt’s model of a normal speech production. Stuttering disappears when the processes function naturally.

The process of normal speaking:

• Attending to the nonverbal idea that the person is expressing
• The brain automatically transforming ideas into language
• The brain simultaneously sending a signal to the speech motor system so that a natural voice that contains intonation is produced
• The mouth simultaneously moving subconsciously and automatically

In normal speech production there is no conscious word awareness, no control over motor activity, and no such thing as trying to “get words out”.  People who stutter may produce speech in this way some of the time, but it is not their exclusive way of speaking. If it were their speech would not be stuttered.

Changing how the brain creates speech is the goal of the treatment program Dynamic Stuttering Therapy. The treatment process involves exploration and self-discovery, identifying what changes need to be made and learning how to make them.  It involves making a commitment to effect neurological, cognitive, and behavioral change, and reinforcing these changes until they become habitual.

The specific goals of therapy that relate to neurological functions are not techniques for controlling speech. They are simply processes normally used by speakers to produce speech.

Specific goals of Dynamic Stuttering Therapy:

1. Learning to develop internal (sub vocal speech) naturally without any attempt to get it out
2. Allowing the speech muscles to work on an automatic mode
3. Generating your voice naturally in a way that allows for the expression of mood and meaning

Many people who have learned to use techniques for controlling their stuttering balk at the idea of not using these controls. They say, “Sure I would like to produce speech more automatically, but I need a way to get out of blocks and to control my stutter”. It is hard to grasp that the point of learning to produce speech naturally is that when you do it, stuttering doesn’t happen. Most people are so locked into their way of thinking that they cannot fathom speaking without effort and thought. They do not realize that there can be a scenario where there is no need for speech controls. Training yourself to function in a new way requires awareness and repetitive use of the brain function. It is moving away from thought about how to say words and control speech, toward the automatic expression of thought.

Speaking naturally is different; it is possible; it is not physically hard to do and requires no special skills, but changing long held concepts and being open to a new approach is a great human challenge.

Sources:

• Levelt, W.J.M. (1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
• Smith, A. and Kelly, E. 1996). Stuttering: A dynamic multifactorial model. In Curlee, R. and Siegel, G. (Ed.)Nature and treatment of stuttering: new directions, (2^nd ed.) (p.204-217) Needham Heigts, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
• Watson, B.C. & Freeman, F.J., (1997) Neurophysiologic behavioral evidence for a fluency-generating system.  In W. Hulstijn, Pascal H.H.M. van Lieshout, & H.F.M. Peters, (Eds.), Speech production: motor control, brain research and fluency disorders. (pp. 341-349) Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.

Over and above the general difficulties of maintaining change, stuttering is a condition that presents special difficulties for the maintenance of change. One of these is that there is most likely an innate tendency for the brain to use an ineffective way for processing speech. Another is that most people who stutter are usually trying to change the wrong thing. I would like to address these two issues.

Research has shown that there are functional and possibly structural difference in the brains of fluent speakers and people who stutter when speaking. These findings are overlooked in most treatment programs. When working on speech tools, the goal is usually to change speech without any consideration of how the speech is being produced. Tools include smooth, slow speech, gentle onsets, pullouts, cancellations and voluntary stuttering. Working on using these techniques is like trying to change how the cake looks when it is finished instead of changing the ingredients and how they are put together. They deal with the result of speaking, the speech, instead of working on how to make it.

In Dynamic Stuttering Therapy we relate to the neuro-physiological process of speaking. During therapy one of the biggest challenges is to get clients to report on how they process speech both in practice and conversations between therapy sessions, instead of on whether or not they stuttered. I find that the clients who succeed in making this switch in perspective are the ones who maintain the new process and enhance their ability to speak fluently. This makes sense. If you are trying to be fluent, who knows what you are doing. It’s all a matter of chance. If you have a way of making speech that results in natural fluency, as happens when you use the processes you have used during therapy, you can make certain you use it.

Once we accept that there is a correct and incorrect process for making speech, there is still a need to cope with the innate tendency of the brain to function the way it is used to functioning. We have a clearly defined process for producing fluent speech, but that does not mean that just because you know the process and have used it, the brain will always function this way. People who stutter have to decide to use the process. The process doesn’t happen to them. They make it happen. Brain processes become stable only when they are repeated over and over again with awareness for at least 6 months to a year. This requires carrying out the process with awareness for a long time after knowing what and how to do it.

When the goal of therapy is to process speech normally, the issue of regression changes. Stuttering doesn’t come and go. You do not have to hope that you will maintain results.  There is a direct connection between what you do and the fluency of speech. Regression does not happen, although the speaker might not use the effective process all the time. In this case stuttering may occur. Nevertheless, if you know the processes for producing fluent speech, you know how to return to it. Being able to do this is not a matter of chance. It is an empowering experience.

There are a few examples of famous people who for the most part have become fluent speakers. Carly Simon, who once struggled with stuttering, set her speech to a rhythm. In an interview she gave with Tavis Smiley, she showed an example of how she made herself speak with what she describes as syncopation. To me it looked like her speech progressed in syllables, as she was no longer trying to get words out. In the same interview, Smiley, who also once stuttered, says he began speaking fluently by imitating the cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech. This is an example of achieving a normal pattern of intonation.

Vice President Joe Biden tells of his efforts to overcome stuttering by practicing reading aloud in front of a mirror and trying to eliminate the contortions of his face.

My clients changed their neurophysiologic processes by learning to develop speech internally without any effort to get it out and by letting their voice reflect normal patterns of intonation while giving up all control over forming words or speech sounds.

Whether the change was made by self-help or within a treatment program, we can learn a few things from people who as older children and adults do change how they speak I am listing a few of them here:

1. They investigate how people who do not stutter speak.
2. They learn from watching and listening to themselves when they speak.
3. They become aware of the act of speaking, instead of trying not to stutter.
4. They are persistent in looking for solutions, instead of focusing on problems.
5. Whether or not it is their conscious goal, they change the intonation pattern of their speech.
6. They take responsibility for the recovery process.
7. They are willing to do repetitive practice on a daily basis.
8. They believe they are capable of making changes.
9. They focus more on what they do rather than blaming external situations for their stuttering.
10. They realize making change requires patience and time.

If you want to help yourself to speak with greater fluency, the first step is to develop as many of these qualities and behaviors as you can. It will make the process of change easier and so much more rewarding.

In an effort to speak fluently, people who stutter, their family and friends are busy trying to find out what outside factors make them stutter. Their hope is to eliminate, change, or learn how to deal with these factors. The emphasis is on external factors. This search is ineffectual because the external factor is not the problem.

The role of external factors is that they may lead the speaker to use a more, or less, controlled process for speaking. It is the individual’s reaction to outside factors and the way their brain functions when these factors are present that actually causes the fluctuations of stuttered speech. Therefore, it is the individual’s reactions, not the catalyst leading to the reactions, that need to change.

Brain functions are not carved in stone. They fluctuate for the better and worse as a result of experience, learning, practice, self-talk and imagination. When an activity has been done in a certain way over and over again, it becomes automatic and consequently more efficient and less subject to influence by outside circumstances.

Taking control over normally automatic processes will always have a negative effect. We see this when we give too much thought to our body movements when we walk or dance. Controlled action makes us clumsier and less flowing in our movement. The same thing happens with our speech.

Stuttering comes and goes according to the degree that controlled processes function to produce speech. By learning how to produce speech automatically, and by accepting the need to speak without control, people who stutter can develop a stable system that generates fluent speech.

Determination, resolve, and not a small amount of stubbornness forced me to look out of the box to find the best way to treat my clients who stutter. I never intended to come up with a whole new theory about stuttering and a new treatment approach. However, when I took into consideration all that is known about stuttering, including the thoughts, beliefs, reactions and behaviors of all my clients and the many thousands of people I have met and spoken to in the stuttering community, it begged to happen. It became so clear to me that stuttering is not simply a problem of the rhythm or forward flow of speech. These were just characteristics of the speech produced. I realized that stuttered speech was the product of a malfunctioning interactive system, so I studied this system from all angles both in the clinic and by learning from researchers and experts in all related fields. It all began to make sense. In the clinic I saw an obvious direct relationship between the way the specific production processes functioned and the fluency of speech. The proof that the speech processing perspective is the right perspective is in the results.

I have never touted Dynamic Stuttering Therapy as the magic cure for stuttering. It is just that I have found it to be the most effective therapy approach. I have a number of clients who have contacted me more than a decade after completing therapy. Some of them are in the videos on my website. They have told me that the treatment they received in my clinic changed their lives. Not all the clients that I have treated over the years have reached the same level of success, but, as the program was refined over the years, there are more and more clients who feel this way.

I have gotten used to seeing the astounding changes that so many clients have made, but sometimes, when I look back on videos to they way the client spoke only a month or so earlier, the enormous difference amazes even me. Not only is the person’s speech so much more fluent, there is also a change in the person’s overall demeanor. Their facial expression, posture and body language is more relaxed and natural and they have a new found ability to relate stories, argue, tell jokes and anecdotes, read before an audience and lead prayers. I have heard many a client say that Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is the most logical and effective way to treat stuttering, but I had to smile when a 13 year old client said, “This therapy rocks!”