To all my PWS out there, and for those of you who might know a bit about stuttering and would like to add your opinions, what do YOU think could be the cause of stuttering. Or what is YOUR theory on the cause of stuttering? Personally, I think it is physiological and psychological. Physiological in the sense that we all know that our speech muscles in our face, and in our throat or larynx, tend to tense up and are not in sync with each other when we begin to produce a sound. Timing is also off between our fast thinking and mouth muscles -- basically, we think too fast for our words. And psychologically, because, in my own experience, I remember my speech being much worse in high school when my self-esteem was pretty low and I was struggling with anxiety and depression. I didn't know which one caused the other. Did my stuttering make me more anxious, or was my hereditary anxiety and depression causing me to stutter more because I was letting my negative thoughts diminish my self-image which consequently affected my speech? I remember becoming more outgoing my first year or two of college and my stuttering slowly dissipated or lessened. Was I just maturing? Was I becoming more confident?
I once talked with a fluency specialist and speech pathology professor at IU Bloomington who told me that recent research showed that stuttering is caused my linguistics -- or the way we learn our words, vocabulary, grammar, and so forth. I still don't fully understand this viewpoint, and I'm interested in learning more about it. But, how could the way I was taught language have affected my speech? I'm sure my parents and teachers taught me grammar, vocabulary, and names of objects the same way they taught my siblings or their students.
So for anyone reading this now, I'd like to hear your opinion on the matter. What do YOU think has been the cause of your stuttering or the stutter of someone you know? What makes you block or stutter or more on one day compared to the next?
Thanks and until next time. :)
Hello Christine,
ReplyDeleteFor the longest time I have often wondered what the cause of my stuttering is, and I commend you for tackling a question that will have many different answers for a lot of people. Having attended a few of the research symposiums at the NSA conferences, what we do know is that it is genetic. I know my great-great grandfather stuttered, but that was before I was born and I never knew him at all. But outside of that, there is no history of stuttering in my family.
It's kind of really unpredictable as to why there are some good days and bad days. On a good day, I can be almost 80 percent fluent with some mild blocks when I speak. Yet on a bad day, I can almost sound like I am struggling with every word. I had a lot of those days in high school and college and would often resort to numerous secondary devices. I was known as the champion pen-flipper of the local community college and no one understood why. But those days are long gone and I am making sure they will never ever come back.
Keep those posts coming...they rock, and quite succinctly, so do you.
-SK.
Hi Christine, I am the fearful type and I had a fearful upbringing and so I have always associated the cause of my stutter with my fearfulness and fearful upbringing. But then again many stuttering children are described as confident and so that confuses things. I do know that when I am totally relaxed and absorbed in a subject I never stutter but then at other such times I do. That appears to tell me that it is not about fear or confidence and yet at the same time it is all about such things. Stress [or trauma] comes in many forms and seems the most likely cause to me. I have privately pointed you in the direction of where I have written my opinions on such matters and so maybe it may all make some sense.
ReplyDeleteWill, hi there. I was looking back over this very old post I wrote and you mentioned at the end that you have pointed me in the direction of where you have written your opinions. I'm afraid I am not connecting your name to a face but want to know where and when we have corresponded before? get back to me on facebook at Christine dits. :)
Deleteelevator pitch: neurophysiological speech motor disorder with a strongly-suspected genetic component
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