tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post112733961827410107..comments2024-03-24T15:07:18.773+01:00Comments on The Stuttering Brain: Response to Trish's messageTom Weidighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02084153394215001999noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-1127399515566771582005-09-22T16:31:00.000+02:002005-09-22T16:31:00.000+02:001.Well it worked - I got a reaction!2.Thank you To...1.Well it worked - I got a reaction!<BR/><BR/>2.Thank you Tom for asking these important questions!<BR/>"What exactly is tension? How do you measure it? Why do repetitions result from tension? How can you test that repetitions result from tension? Where is the literature that supports it? Which experiments can be made to prove it?"<BR/>Regarding the "Where is the literature that supports it?" So far there is only mine, it would seem - and mine comes from a longterm broad investigation into children's personality traits rather than a formal study. Nevertheless, I have seen and heard enough to be convinced. But for others to be convinced? - they could perhaps observe in the same sort of way because it is by looking broadly at stammering, and seeing it in the context of the other main childhood difficulties that things become clearer and pennies drop.<BR/>The fact that research in this "tension" area could be difficult should not stop folk considering ways to do it. <BR/>Of course anecdotal information has an important place - it suggests areas for research; I'm not calling it "proof".<BR/>I have explained elsewhere why I have come to my conclusions and theory but I am not a researcher and it is too late for me to become one - and so I have been trying very hard to interest others in what I have found to be true. <BR/><BR/>"...you have not explained the mechanism how in some kids tensions lead to stuttering."<BR/>Our genes will surely have a say in the way we express our tension - just as they interact to influence other behaviour and development. I have tried to illustrate the great diversity of tension-related traits in "Reasons and Remedies". And I have been at pains to say that tension is a necessary and often useful attribute of us all. Yet while some children might, let us say, begin to wet the bed at difficult times for them, and others perhaps suck their thumbs more vigorously, some become more repetitive in their behaviour - and sometimes the repetitive behaviour comes out in their speech. <BR/>I won't duplicate here what I've written elsewhere and on my websites.<BR/>Perhaps we need speech and language therapists/pathologists to collect data re. their patients/clients in order to look at children's developmental difficulties eg. stammering, other speech and language problems, dyslexia, ADHD, dyspraxia, tourettes, etc in the light of behavioural traits related to tension and anxiety. <BR/><BR/>We should beware of verbalising too many obstacles to broad research - I can't see how progress is to be made without it.<BR/>Won't somebody do some??<BR/>TishAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com