Monday, May 05, 2008

Fall in different ways

Oren asked me:
I'm interested to know whether you have the same sensation for all types of stutters (repetitions, prolongations, pauses, etc.)? If not, how is the sensation different for each stutter type?
I think it feels the same before the event. There is some mental blockage, i.e. I know what to say, my brain gives the signal you can say it, but then I sense that I cannot. Whether this translates into repetition, prolongation or pause is secondary. Like if I fall, I can struggle not to hit the ground, I can fall on my knees, or use my hand to soften the fall. The share of different behaviour is either learned or based on where I am in the sentence I guess... So I would say that I do not know which symptom is going to happen. I often notice that if I try to suppress on symptoms like a block then I have a pause. Or if I stop hesitations and fillers, I have blocks.

2 comments:

Einar said...

Hmm, I'm not sure I agree with that mental block... To me it seems more to be like a self-fullfilling prophecy. It's conditionned; because you are convinced that you'll stutter in the next moment (due so many similar incidences in the past), you'll actually have a block. What follows then (repetitions, silence, prolongations etc...) is avoidance.

Tom Weidig said...

I have only described my experience of the whole situation.

Some of it might be conditioned. But I think that the inability to pronounce can express itself in different ways of stuttering.