Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Pebbles under the tongue

Here is a "rival" blog on stuttering: Pebbles Under The Tongue. John MacIntyre describes his efforts to become (more) fluent with a fluency shaping therapy. Currently John is in the maintenance phase after the intensive therapy phase. Of course, this phase is critical, and often relapse happens. And a lot of patience, courage, honesty-to-yourself and stamina is needed to keep on course. Qualities I think John shows admirably in his last post:

Up until last week I had done my daily shaping every day. But last week I missed 2 days, and this week I missed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I wasn’t happy that I missed it, but life just kind of took over. By mid week I had totally lost my ability to use my targets, increasingly using my previous spontaneous fluency pattern.

But Wednesday evening, I was stuttering like a maniac picking up a prescription at the drug store…I was blocking badly. And as reminiscent of old times, the guy behind me, just had to see my face as I attempted to shield myself from the embarrassment! He started off behind me, but when I started to stutter, he came around my right side leaning over to watch me. When I turned my back on him, leaning left, he moved completely around to my left side. I turned away again, and he again moved to my right. At this point, I realized he was determined to watch, so I stopped trying to get away from him and let him watch me make a fool out of myself!

Guess what … I came home and did my shaping! I did it yesterday and today. I don’t think I’ll miss it again for a while. ;-)

I don’t know what the heck that was, but before my therapy, I definitely would have stuttered and interpreted the hang up as some kind of rejection. Then I would have felt like crap for the rest of the day. At least now I know what ever the heck the problem was … it wasn’t my problem and I quickly moved on with my work.

In this post, he has made public his before and after video. The changes are amazing, and very similar to the ones I observed at the KST. There are also videos of myself at the KST. I'll see if I can get hold of them.

Here is John's talk given at Toastmasters.

1 comment:

John MacIntyre said...

Thanks for the posting Tom. It's flattering when others find what I'm doing worth reading.

While benefiting from my blog is unlikely (other than personal insights), it's pointless unless people are reading it. So your post reenforces the value of writing my blog.

Also, "Rival" is a flattering exageration ... but thanks. ;-)

Thanks again,
John