Wednesday, December 10, 2008

We need more competition!


Becoming more fluent is hard work over a longer period. You can also say that becoming fluent is like achieving mastery in a sport; the skill of controlling our propensity to stutter. How do you become a top tennis player at your local club? You need to be focused, live in the right environment, have spare time, be motivated, have a competitive spirit, some talent, receptive to coaching and ability to practise regularly and hard. For example, I am a strong tournament chess player and spent hours and hours playing chess. Much more than I ever spent on treatment. Is it no surprise that I am not a master in more fluent speech? Why did I not spend more time on stuttering? I would happily be the worst chess player ever for stable fluency.

I guess one reason is that the rules of chess are laid down. You know what you have to do to win, and you know what you have to study to become better. And most importantly, you have constant competition. Other people are challenging you, and I do not take it well when I loose after a hard fought hour-long game! It motivates me to get better and beat my opponent next time! And I know just how bad I am, and no therapist putting on a positive spin. In stuttering treatment, there is no competition. There is no declaration of a win or a loss; you have to make the judgment call.You have only yourself to fight against, or if you wish against the unknown enemy that makes you stutter.

Maybe we should establish a stuttering league where stutterers can compete against each other. In speech, reading and debate contests. We could also have a first-block-out competition. Two people are talking and the first who stutters looses. Another competition could be the-best-secondary-symptoms contest, but I guess that's a bit counter-productive. Well, we can just change it to the-best-simulated-secondary-symptoms contest, and that it is about voluntary stuttering. How about establishing a rating system? So if you win, you get extra points, and the more so the higher rated your opponent was. We could even have national teams that compete against each other. How about club names like Stuttering Sox, Stuttering United, Real Stuttering?

I tell you already you now. If you ever compete again me, you will loose! I am the best! ;-)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Irony of Stuttering....

The Irony of Stuttering: The Irony of stuttering is that the problem goes away when you no longer care about it. (Maybe this applies to some people).

Stuttering is diff. for each individual person.

I am no Chess master, but any master chess player who stutter.

Dr. Tom...Happy Birthday! Good luck trying to figure out stuttering. (Solving the unsolvable problem of stuttering)

Anonymous said...

I have a new student with a "developmental" tremor. He's very athletic and can play any sport, but can not use fasteners and has difficulty when eating or writing. He also has days where there is hardly a tremor, but if he is excited, happy, upset or stressed they increase dramatically. I see more of a correlation to this fine motor tremor re: mastering stuttering, then I do comparing improving stuttering and mastering a sport or chess. Those who master a sport have a nervous system "set" with very few if any "flaws." There has to be something else, other than practice, that improve the underlying systems. They should run automatically--then "practice" can improve on that "set"--but practice does not replace the "set" of the underlying systems.

Just a thought.
Lynne

A said...

This is a horrible idea. It frustrates me to no end that people think that stuttering is something that you can "overcome". To add a competitive edge to it will make those who feel a great shame and pain about their stuttering feel even worse. The movement should be towards a greater acceptance of stuttering in the society. Not changing the stutterers to fit the society's expectations of "normal" speech.

Tom Weidig said...

It only goes away for mild and covert stutterers, but not for people who exhibit a lot of stuttering.

Tom Weidig said...

I think sports psychology could be very useful in stuttering treatment, because you need to change behaviours and you need to have goals and challenges.

Anonymous said...

The McGuire Programme is run very much with a sports mentality, it promotes habitual changes to your speaking and life in general.

Anonymous said...

Why does the McGuire programme compare losing your stuttering to losing weight? Is that appropriate?

David McGuire used to play Tennis, and uses a lot of sports psychology....