commentr/StutterDecember 15, 2019

Content

I am also the only one in my family who has ever presented with a stutter. I went to a speech therapist a couple of times growing up, but found it pretty useless because their method of initial assessment was to get me to read. I barely stutter when I read aloud, especially when it's to someone who is sitting there focused on what I am saying (no pressure to finish). A lot of the exercises were also reading sentences off paper. None of it helped because it was not relevant to the circumstances in which I stutter. I spent much of my teen years with it being very mild; I was really into performing arts and some of my drama teachers didn't even realise I had it (paraphrasing lines was enough to get around any issues). Public speaking was no problem as a teen, though I have started having mild issues with it as an adult as my stutter has gotten worse. Most notably, the more people in a conversation, the more likely I am to stutter. I think it's due to the pressure to finish what I am saying quickly before someone else interjects or the topic changes. More recently I've begun to think it may also be a processing issue, e.g. filtering out a lot of noise (in a restaurant for example), monitoring the conversation, and trying to speak.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceCauses & VariabilitySocial & Relationships

Subthemes

Avoidance & SubstitutionSituational VariabilityPropositionality & WeightAudience Scale & Group Size