**Part 3/3** **What exactly is the fear-panic response in response to the approach-avoidance conflict?** This isn't directly my area of study specifically so I can only speak to what I know clinically. Also, depending on the severity it may fall completely out of the scope of an SLP and would be better suited to work with a licensed mental health therapist in partnership. Avoidance in stuttering, like with most things, is a learned response that can stem from a number of reasons (trauma, negative experiences, internal fears, etc). However, communication is a necessary and desired aspect of life for all people. For a number of reasons, someone may have a fear of public speaking but still have to do it for school/work, as an example. There are a few clinically tested and proven therapies to help people who stutter overcome many of the negative reactions and fears associated with stuttering (Avoidance Reduction Therapy for Stuttering (ARTS) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)). If the fear response goes so far into being debilitating for quality of life, this may fall out of our scope and could work alongside a licensed psychologist/psychiatrist since SLP's are not licensed mental health therapists. **What is the reflexive freeze response in stuttering in detail?** Reflexive freeze response is not specific to stuttering alone, it can occur in other disorders such as anxiety. I would offer the similar response to the above question. Some things also fall out of the scope of an SLP so many may not have answers because we are not licensed and train to care for those symptoms or disorders. In that case, we would work alongside a licensed mental health professional to support areas that we cannot treat. I am also happy to research some into this and get back to you if you'd like. **What is the unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response in the context of stuttering?** I'm not sure I understand the phrasing of your question. Did you mean a conditioned since unconditioned events are automatic? Unconditioned stimulus would be speech, and the response would be stuttering for people who stutter since it is something that naturally happens without any training. If you meant conditioned stimuli and response, then I do not believe that stuttered speech (prolongation, block, repetition) is conditioned or learned and have not seen any evidence to support that it is. I will say that many secondary behaviors can be and usually are learned for fluency either intentionally or unintentionally. This is an example that a friend of mine often shares. \>They were talking in class and tapping their foot simultaneously. When they were tapping their foot, they didn't stutter. In their mind, they figured if they kept tapping their foot then they wouldn't stutter when they talked so they did it constantly as an avoidance behavior. Eventually it didn't work so it progressed to have to stomp their foot, which then progressed to other movements. It was something that they actively associated with fluent speech so then continued to do so and the avoidance behavior became worse and worse when it didn't actually help. **How exactly thru conditioning does anticipation trigger the unconditioned response?** I'm not sure I understand the phrasing of your question. Did you mean a conditioned response since unconditioned responses are automatic events? Again, not my area of research and study so my knowledge is limited. When a person anticipates a moment of stuttering, they can do a number of things. For many, it might be a learned secondary behavior like foot tapping, arm movement, head jerking etc. like I mentioned in the answer above with associating fluency with X movement. Some also may not do it; it doesn't happen all the time for everyone. A person may associate stuttering with negative reactions or events that happened or a fear response from internal thoughts. When a person anticipates a stutter, it may lead to a fear or anxiety response.