>*"The development of motor behaviors in speech hinders fluency. For example, when a person who stutters exerts extreme effort to pronounce a syllable at the beginning of a word—when, in reality, this effort itself is harming fluency. "* Agreed! I think we can all acknowledge that excessive muscle tension is unnecessary and maladaptive, making it a hindrance to fluency. That’s one perspective / viewpoint. But the key question is: **How exactly does unnecessary physical tension interfere with fluency?** **Answer:** So this is my personal viewpoint, it's the other side of the coin. If someone believes that exerting more physical tension helps them push through a block faster, then, in my experience, this excessive tension may actually seem to lead to fluency. In this case, I’d argue that my own **perception** of the stimuli—muscle tension and speech execution—allowed me to bypass the approach-avoidance conflict, enabling fluency. Put another way, I might gradually increase muscle tension until my subconscious perceives that it’s "time"—that there is now the "right" amount of tension—to execute speech movements. **Conclusion:** So what exactly makes physical tension maladaptive or harmful to fluency? This is a question towards you, how would you answer it? My point is that such tricks, or even fluency shaping techniques**—whether it’s forcing tension or relaxing tension or trying to stay calm —can be just as counterproductive / maladaptive.** At the end of the day, neither the physical tension or muscle relaxation or the fluency technique itself creates fluent speech I think. Instead, fluency occurs when the approach-avoidance "cognitive" conflict is resolved, or when the fear-panic reflex response is properly unlinked (in your terms, when we reduce negative emotions or become tolerant to them at that exact moment when executing speech movements). Right? This is just my own take on it!