Understanding ‘Stuttering Anticipation’ to Reduce Your Stutters
Most people who stutter can anticipate the words that will cause them to block, prolong, or repeat. Here’s what you should know about stuttering anticipation to enhance your fluency.
A common misconception about people who stutter (PWS) is that they don’t know what to say. The truth is quite the opposite in most situations. PWS are neither confused nor grasping for words.
In reality, many even know which word(s) they will stutter on, but they can’t avoid it. That causes them to withdraw, seem less confident and introverted in social gatherings or discussions.
Even before stuttering occurs, many PWS realize precisely which word(s) they will have a problem saying. This is referred to as “stuttering anticipation.”
The reactions to stuttering anticipation vary widely.
How Does Anticipation Happen?
Mauricio Garcia-Barrera, associate professor at the University of Victory, and Jason H. Davidow, associate professor of Hofstra University, conducted a study on how PWS anticipate stutter.
Broca’s area, a region in the frontal lobe of our brain, is involved in speech production. According to the study, the error-monitoring system of our frontal lobe is responsible for stuttering anticipation.
PWS have a set of “feared words” which almost always worsens their stutter. The error monitoring system of our frontal lobe keeps a track of these words and the subsequent reactions to them by the listener.
For example, maybe you want to order a Big Mac at the McDonald’s. The word “big” starts with “/b”, which temporarily blocks the airflow from our lungs. These are “plosive sounds” and a very common ingredient of feared words.
While placing a similar order in the past, we might have had difficulties in saying “big”. That might have triggered a deplorable reaction from the cashier. This, in turn, might have made us anxious or embarrassed.
The function of our frontal lobe is to store the reaction to that word as a “negative memory.” Subsequent interactions at McDonald’s or similar situations remind us of the reaction to our stutter at “big.” This is how we anticipate negative reactions from our listeners on our feared words.
The Varying reactions To Stuttering Anticipation
People who stutter, may react differently to anticipation. For instance, some might alter their volume before saying “Big Mac.” There will also be people who will avoid the situation completely and order another item instead.
Eric S. Jackson, who works as an assistant professor at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, categorized the reactions into two broad categories — action responses and non-action responses.
1. Action responses — These are the responses that involve a significant and noticeable change to speech. Action Responses can be further classified into three groups:
- Avoidance strategy — Here, we try to avoid the stutter by either stalling our speech, using sounds like “ah”, “um”, “er”, or by breaking eye contact and pretending to focus on a different thing.
- Self-management strategy — These strategies are based on the traditional methods of speech therapy. For example, we might change our volume, breathing pattern, eliminate self-deprecating thoughts, and practice pseudo-stuttering.
- Approach strategy — An approach strategy is where we are fully aware of the potential stumbling blocks in a sentence, but still proceed to say it.
2. Non-action responses — Though small, but a portion of PWS cannot recognize a stutter anticipation. Non-action responses are where speakers don’t change their speech themselves. This might have physical repercussions, like:
- Becoming anxious or nervous
- Becoming less confident
- Losing grasp of what needs to be said
- Losing social awareness
The Challenge — Making Anticipation an advantage
Eric S. Jackson’s study showed that 77% of children have experienced stuttering anticipation at least once, while the number rises to 100% in teenagers.
The research by Jackson provides a thorough insight into the process of speech production. Hence, the objective for Speech-language Pathologists (SLPs) is to use anticipation to enhance fluency. SLPs can chart ways of using anticipation by knowing how someone reacts to it.
For PWS, the goal should be indifferent to negative reactions. One way of achieving it is by acknowledging that the listener is unaware of our stutter or simply lacks the knowledge of how to interact with PWS.
Stuttering anticipation often goes unnoticed because of a lack of recognition. With proper guidance and knowledge of the subject, it can be used to our advantage.
Since the response to stuttering anticipation varies from person to person, SLPs try to identify the reaction any particular person has to it. What responses does the person have when they anticipate a stutter, how do they change their response — these are a few things SLPs ask to figure out what someone feels about anticipation.
Once someone’s feeling about anticipation is known, SLPs try to inculcate a positive and advantageous response to it. Since a vast majority of PWS can anticipate a stutter, the goal is to incorporate an anticipation response within our system that enhances fluency.
