What Happens When You Stammer?
Many experts have tried to define the actual characteristics of
stammering - but of course these can change from day to day
and from moment to moment. Sometimes the characteristics are described
simply as the changes in the speech. But this is a very narrow way
of analysing a complicated problem such as stammering. Features
such as repetitions, prolongations, blocks, struggle and physical
movements are often described. Some of these depend on how long
you have been stammering and how many coping strategies you use
to stop, avoid or hide the problem. These may have helped at first,
but may also, in the long run, have made it worse.
Repetitions
This describes repeating either the whole word or part of the
word too many times. So it might be like saying "da - da
- da - dad" or "m - m - m - my",
or if it is the whole word "my my my my my name is is is, my
name is, my name is…". It is as if you are endlessly tripping
up over the words.
Prolongations
Another way in which it feels as if the talking has just got "stuck"
in some way, you just can't finish the sound and get on to the
next one. For example, instead of saying "seven", it comes
out as "sssssssssssseven". For some people this prolonging
of the sound can feel as if it has lasted for ages, even though it
might be milliseconds of time.
Blocking
Some people don't have any repetitions or any prolongations, but
what they do have is total blocks in their speech. These can be almost
silent. It is as if the mouth has become stuck. Some people say it
feels like their tongue is stuck inside their mouth, or the air has
become trapped inside the voice box.
The blocking can also be associated with struggle or excessive
tension as you try to force your mouth to work. There may be extra
noises as you push the words out. The harder you push, the worse
the block. You may go back over the previous few words to try to
release it and nothing happens. You may try to move your hands,
feet or whole body to release the tension. Finally you do get the
word out - relief, until someone says "What?" -
because the blocking and struggling have meant that they have lost
the place in what you are saying, or because the word came out in
such a rush that they couldn't understand it.
Other strategies
So those things can happen to your actual talking, but there may
be other things that you do to try to control the problem too.
Avoiding words
What we find here is that some people have been incredibly clever
and developed a huge dictionary of words inside their heads -
so that when a problem word comes up, they can find an alternative
that is not so hard to say - perhaps it starts with an easier
sound. Other clever tricks might include pretending not to have heard,
adding little phrases such as "kind of", "y'know",
or using a swear word!
Avoiding situations
As we have said, some situations feel far harder to face than others,
and many teenagers have told us about the tricks and strategies they
use to avoid having to speak. For example: missing certain lessons,
not putting a hand up to answer questions (even though they know the
answer perfectly well), or saying "I don't know", always
having the right money in shops or on buses, pretending to be foreign,
only shopping in supermarkets, getting others to make phone calls,
etc. The list is endless. Of course these tricks are not only associated
with stammering, they are used by lots of other people who don't
like talking in front of others.
Most people really don't understand!
You probably know that many people do not understand the problem of
stammering. These people have never met anyone who stammers - although
they still may have an opinion on the problem. It is also harder to
explain when you have developed clever tricks to hide or minimise
the difficulty. Part of getting help might be learning to be more
open about it. That takes courage, but therapy can help. |
