What I’ve Observed About My Stutter and My Blocks

What I’ve Observed About My Stutter and My Blocks Hi everyone, I’m a mild stutterer and I wanted to share something I’ve recently figured out about my speech. # My stutter has two parts: * **Tripping on words** (tongue slipping, losing control, speaking too fast) * **Blocks** (mostly at the start of speaking) # Tripping on words Sometimes it feels like my tongue is like a car that lost control. I also noticed I can’t talk fast without messing up. So I started retraining my tongue position: * I anchor my tongue to my lower front teeth when possible *(resting position)* * I realized my tongue kept pulling back during speech even when it didn’t need to * I also found out I was using my chin to make sounds like *t* and *d*, when I could just move my tongue instead Learning the correct tongue movement took a long time, but it helped a lot. I trip up way less now. I trained by reading books out loud. # Blocks at sentence starts This is the bigger problem for me. My blocks happen right at the moment when I’m supposed to start speaking. What **doesn’t** cause blocks for me: * Whispering * Quiet voice (soft voice that rides on breath) * Vocal fry speech * Singing * Reading while smoothly switching between any of the above to voice All of these have something in common: The voice rides on breath. Breath comes first, voice comes second. My normal speech is the opposite: **instant, sharp, and voice-first**. And I think this is where my blocks come from. # What I think causes the blocks It feels like my vocal cords **tense and close** right before I try to speak. Because of that: * Air can’t escape * The cords can’t vibrate * I feel like I can’t breath * And the block happens But when I whisper, sing, or speak fry, I don’t block because I start with **breath first**. This naturally keeps the vocal cords open and relaxed, and then the voice can enter smoothly. # What I’m trying to do now I’m trying to bring this “breath-first” feeling into my normal speaking voice without sounding like I’m whispering or singing. My quiet voice seems like the closest “normal” version of this, but there’s a problem: I don’t know how to make it louder without tensing my throat. I know in theory that volume should come from breath, not the vocal cords. But it’s really hard to feel that difference in everyday speech. I don’t want to rely on techniques like the “H onset” either, because it feels unnatural in daily conversation. And tbh I'm afraid of sounding weird. What I want is to use the same natural pattern my body already uses when I whisper, sing, or transition from whisper to voice: **breath → then voice**. Does anyone have tips for making a quiet, breath-first voice louder **without** throat tension? And if anyone else has had these same “blocks at the first sound,” I’d love to hear what helped you.