September 25th, 2014

Post date: Sep 26, 2014 9:44:28 PM

Seven of us met for our E, Maine September NSA meeting last night at Dysart's:  6 PWS (Ravi, Mike, Tom, Peter, Natalie, myself) and  1 spouse (Jane).   We opened the "official meeting" with a choral reading in the middle of a busy restaurant !...How's that for advertising !!   Our round the table "check in"  led to an interesting , recurring, topic: the strategies we have used, or are using, that lead to less stuttering.  Peter and Natalie (and myself too !) talked about using a clearly articulated, slow speech style.  Peter is practicing this using Dragon Speech software.  Ravi has recently been in a therapy program that uses melodic speech , i.e. singing-like rhythmic speech,  to smooth out his speech. With this mode of speaking, he "finally" found more fluency than he ever has had.    Of course this discussion led to the bottom line thing with all these strategies, which is that they are "not normal" ways of talking.   So, will more practice lead to being able to use "your favorite fluency strategy" more automatically,  so that it then "becomes your normal mode" ?????    My opinion retrospectively is...which I didn't have my thought's clear enough in the forefront at the time to express ( see what I mean guys??)  ...maybe  yes, according to motor theories (i.e.the old  "practice makes perfect" mantra) .  However, and  more importantly, I believe that without the concurrent acceptance of being "okay" with a stutter when it happens and, then being able to calmly deal with it, aren't you setting yourself up for the futile search for "perfect fluency" and feeling guilty and feeling a failure when a stutter still happens?   So, in my opinion....you want both attitudes and both kinds of strategies,  working beside themselves as happy partners !  :)

We then moved onto an activity I took from the S. Cincinnati Chapter  report this month (thanks guys)... Opposite Emotions.   We discussed the emotions/feelings  that trigger stuttering and the contexts that lead to it.  Then, what emotions/feelings we had when we stuttered less.  What can we do to nurture and build up those latter emotions and feelings??.  Our answers reflected the complex and diverse animal that stuttering is!  For example, Natalie stutters more when feeling relaxed and comfortable , I stutter less!  Ravi and Tom and Mike stutter less when really "not thinking" about speech and Peter when he "thinks about it" by talking clearly and slowly !!  So...go figure!!

So it was a great crowd at Dysart's and great conversations.  We missed all who were not there.  The whole group decided the next meeting will be on a Monday, Oct. 27th !  Put it on the calendar!