Stuttering techniques - to escape or to create
And yeah, you might be wondering, “Okay, then how can we affect this automated response? If it's all automated then probably there's nothing we can do about it?”
Well, we’re able to do a lot actually! I'm a big fan of creating a new automated response. Let's see how we can do it!
First of all, let's talk about the stuttering techniques or the “training speech” as I call it. That's traditional speech therapy. So, we're trying to do what? That's the biggest question for you as a speech therapist, for you as a parent, for you as a person who stutters and who is exploring different ways to improve.
If it's still more like escaping stuttering better (even though we can call it ‘control’ stuttering), if we are trying to escape stuttering, this is still stuttering!
We can increase fluency for sure! And people who stutter often say, “Oh, I got fluent for several weeks but then gradually stuttering came back! It doesn't work anymore!” It's not that it doesn't work but you want to look at using the techniques from a new angle. If it's still escaping stuttering better you are going to come back to square one and start over from the same spot.
So from the practical point of view (in a very technical sense)
the opposite of escaping is creating speaking experiences where you don't have to speak, you don't need to speak.
It's not that I need to say something right now fluently, and I go, “Hey, the technique, where are you? Help me please! I need to escape (sorry, control) stuttering better!” When we create speaking experiences we're not escaping stuttering, we're not controlling stuttering, we're not responding in this case. When you create a speaking experience where you don't have to speak, it's your choice.
All of a sudden, it becomes in and of itself the opposite of escaping stuttering. Technically, it’s the opposite of escaping speaking, and we all know that the easiest and the most effective way to escape stuttering is to escape speaking. Our brain understands that, so by default it wants to escape speaking to escape stuttering. It wants to say it fluently and run away. Instead, we want to feel we're not running away, we're here, we're present, we are intentionally creating speaking experiences even though we don't have to.