Del 3

The studying of the stuttering speechLyssna

When you work with and make yourself aware of your stuttering speech it will inevitably become an obsession of what is happening in the organ of your speech, an obsession that I want to warn against. It may, in my opinion not last too long.                      
During a long period of time my stuttering speech was studied in different ways and in different therapies. The idea was that if I knew what I did I would also be able to do something about it. The consciousness of the procedure was thus an important component of therapy.                

Hearing was not immediately thought of but many times it was a device that did not work very well. I can hear but have not yet heard. The coordination is for some reason not very good.          

The idea of speech therapist Broberg´s exercises was to strain hard first and then fine. I had to check it by looking in a mirror. There I could clearly see if I was articulating with the lips or not. If I did not move them enough I was not heard enough. The goal was to get a pattern of speech that I could use outside the therapy room.            

Brobergwas a very well-known speech therapist in film and theatre world. He taught the actors speak "from the basement,” which meant that he taught a breathing technology, which emanated from the diaphragm.                   

In intensive stutter therapy studying is more knowledge-based and systematic with phonetics as the background. There are trained speech therapists, psychologists and a doctor of phonetics who is responsible for the therapy. The participants´ stutter is identified by several. Also here the opinion was that the consciousness of how you stutter would generate a better speech. To say one thing and not produce your speech after what was meant was basically ill. Phonetic errors in the process of speech could be e.g. neutralvowel which means that the speech is misdirected. This problem is reduced when the consciousness is increased. To some help can be pictures of the oral cavity that show where the different phonetic sounds are formed. Plosives, murmurs, vowel sounds and consonant sounds belong to them.         

The basis for the activity is what they call CRIC which is a form of drama exercises every morning. The initials stand for Communication, Relaxation, Interplay and Contact. The participants have access to a "Technology Laboratory" with the appointment, which is staffed with speech therapists. The first step in SNS (Slower Normal Speech) for example, is just the mapping. After that the stuttering speech is in some cases copied exactly and later said without stuttering. The next step is the hardening and then the change that ends with the stability.

Some stutter behaviour is charged with tension in the organs of speech and body. Anyone who met a stutterer knows there are many ways to falter on but the most common is the repetition of words or syllables. In order to overcome or move on in conversations I have like so many other stutterers  got behaviours in the form of the movements, changes of words and other debris that is in the body and / or placed in the speech. The most unreliable description I heard was when I was at a shopping mall and heard what a person said to another. . .

.” . . he was stuttering on the entire sentence.”                                       

Dan Mogren´s therapy was based upon the method developed by Sven Smith combined with voluntary stutter. He controlled the start of speech and speech rate with the help of drums. Dan Mogren did so much more. He played with the stuttering, he felt it and he literally tasted it. (Too bad he did not eat it) - we did the same. He did something positive of everything that came up. He encouraged "stutter in town.”                 

When we have examined the stuttering speech and perhaps looked at ourselves in the mirror or in the video, dared to listen to ourselves here and now, or used tape recorders, it is important to move forward. One way is that after a stop you are creating a new track of speech, a track so far from the old reflexes of stutter as possible to one that may be similar to the normal rate.      

The extent to which stuttering is studied today I do not know. Members of the various clubs like to speak about how different we are not only as individuals but also in our stuttering. Awareness, I think is actually the most important theoretical ingredient.     

Speech is habit forming. It has been a long time for you to get the speech you have. You are therefore speaking in the way you're used to, to speak.                                   


Respect your stuttering   symptoms

My stuttering gives me problems with the jaw. It is enough that I talk too much. It hurts my muscles. Do I have access to my massage apparatus I use it for a while to loosen up the muscle groups on both sides of the face, around the whiskers. If I have no access to it I use my fingers and massage these places. Chewing gum after these problems is really no big shots. You may think it strange to do this, but I have only taken after what our physical therapists do. It should not be much of a difference on the different muscle groups.  

When I have these symptoms, I feel I must take them into account either by shortening the call or to make a break for further progress. The biggest problem is getting the other person to understand that I have problems. He sees and hears nothing.

It can be both tiring and demanding to stutter. Likewise the indication of stuttering that occurs when you try to stop it. The question is what you can do to recover. Is it that you look after a job can be a way to lose office or retire earlier. Another perhaps less appealing way is to ask to use the "bunk" that many companies have for acute illnesses - embarrassingly - fellow workers could start to wonder what it is with me and maybe start thinking whether I should remain on the company. And what does the management say when they learn that the staff is tired and fails to work. Fatigue in the workplace is taboo and therefore no one wants to talk about it.                      

I solved the problem with that if necessary by sit and meditate for a quarter of an hour in the bathroom - in fact, that is where integrity is the greatest.       

Compared with normal     speaking

Many years ago I started to pay attention to the normal rate by studying how people who do not stutter speak. Pretty soon I realized that there were many who were anxious of speaking, some blushing, especially women.

The next step was to copy what you found, do the same and hey presto, you are a normal speaking. In fact, if you act in the same way as the normal-speaking raises a positive sense – the conditions are the same. All speak in their own way, some slow, some fast and some forced. I am used to speak slowly it may be advisable to increase Speech. I am used to talk soon and the other party speaks softly, I can slow down my speech. For the normal speaking person this is no funny business - to react and affect each other. If time is short and the relationship is friendly the other person can fill in the words, otherwise not. People are not so cool, they often have feelings that are reflected in the speech. It's just young people who in their eagerness to get into the adult world think it's OK to hide the true feelings at a high price - it's just cool to be cool.

The normal speaker reacts quite differently. He talks faster and may raise his voice. You can see that he is irritated.

Copying the normal speaking person´s speech for a person who stutters cannot be done so easily. But you can speak fluently in another way. My recommendation to anyone who is interested is to contact the SPEECH Academy in Linköping. Åke Byström who is an internationally known speech and stuttering therapist is leading the technology and therapy for Stuttering Free Speech. One of the cornerstones is to vary your speech in three different speech tempos, which means that it extends the speech by either 250, 100 or 50 milliseconds.

A warning

When any of the normal-speaking stutter they get the feeling that something is wrong, which means that it acts as a warning signal that something is wrong.

Stress
In stuttering context stress is often a bad thing. It is the reason which in many cases allows a slightly floating fragile speech becoming a stuttering voice - it's like pouring gasoline on the fire. What it depends on I do not know but my theory is that stress is interfering. The speech will be done in a certain way. I know within me that a slower speech rate means that stuttering decreases in frequency. I keep my control in a different way. It may simply be that you have time to think and control the rate during the conversation. When the stress shows itself in a situation and often confused with a tiny emotional reaction it triggers the stuttering.

During the 60s, a survey was conducted at the Karolinska Hospital, which even I myself took part in. Mainly it was examined whether it was good with medicine as a sedative. I and others formed randomly to a control group taking just sugar pills, the so-called placebo group. The stress level was measured when talking by measuring the norepinephrine levels. It turned out that there were participants who had such high levels of norepinephrine that was similar to that measured on combat soldiers.

Hidden Depression

Countless times I have wondered about me and my stuttering - what is the real underlying reason? Hidden depression, maybe mood swings, boredom, a great need to be confirmed. The thoughts will, among other things come from my countless therapies. Some of them are successful short-term point of view, so I have coined the word "lawn mower therapies.” What is it that makes me to periodically have to go to therapy to have my head above water? The answer may be that life or the people around me do not give me what I need. I give, but don´t get back the dose I need. They also contribute, but not enough.

Is psychotherapy the solution?

I have been thinking of the therapy and had preliminary talks but concluded that it is both expensive, slow and prolonged and that the result of a mismatch can be assessed. This therapy is based on Freud, a person who has been named father of psychoanalysis. He argued about that it was possible to help patients from a neurotic suffering to ordinary human emotions. Now, as then psychotherapy is considered to be one of the methods to obtain better mental health. Together with stuttering therapist Dan Mogren I have got good insight into many of the world's research on stuttering through the ages. I remember Freud as an amazing person who managed with everything, but not enough to cure stammering persons. The symptom of stuttering sabotaged therapy.   

Freud is challenged by CBT

Cognitive behavioral therapy is reputed to be fast, results oriented and easy to absorb. It focuses on solutions to problems in the moment instead of analysis of childhood. Method roots go back to Pavlov and his dogs, not to Freud's theories. The change made by the patient who learns to act and think differently, not by coming to understanding through conversation. Those who work with the method believe that the major challenge lies in matching the right patient in the right way. What can speak against CBT for the stuttering is difficult upbringing and early trauma. This requires a longer contact to be able to work deeper and with more emphasis on childhood and early relationships.

In the psychodynamic therapy is concern for context, how things fit together more interesting - the whole life history is involved. Cognitive behavioral therapy selects a part. Intensive stuttering therapy which I participated a few times seems to engage in therapy to CBT direction or practicing parts of it. Perhaps they are even predecessors.

What is depression?

According to Wilks depression is more prevalent among those who have suffered painful experiences in childhood. "A child who has been loved unconditionally feels worthy of being loved and have a reserve of self-reliance that can be exploited later in life. Psychologists believe this is one of the best protections against depression in adults. For those who have not had the good fortune to experience such a childhood self-esteem must be built up in other ways. A loving partner or a stimulating work may be the way forward, as well as community with real friends. Depression is quite a complex condition, but if you suffer from it try to see it as a transitional stage to take you through and learn something from.”

In a major depression it is 3-4 times greater risk of dying within five years, according to Steven Pinker.

Parental Liability

What we have inherited through the genes does not affect the growing up during the first period in life. The environment, however, molds the individual character. All will be damaged by various forms of abuse or of being in a bad environment. This according to researchers Martin Ingvar´s and Marie Åsberg´s lecture at the Stockholm Cultural House on Nov 6 in 2006. Is a total nervous mom a "bad environment"? Can this child manage without injury?

All children have in their development somewhat similar to stuttering but called iterations. Are there children at risk the information is given in the regular monitoring of children's speech which takes place today. In cases where you do not have this relationship to speech development is my assumption that the role of parents in the child's stuttering is minimal. The social legacy is ever present - that is known that the disposition of stuttering is transmitted through genes.

The established point of view that parents should not be blamed if their children have started to stutter seems to apply in most cases.

I have experienced that even a 6-year old, 10-year-old, 13- year- old, 16- year- old and even adults, in exceptional cases have started to stutter. What the reason is, I can only speculate in. Many stutterers have testified that the school is absolutely the worst environment for a stutterer. School is stressful. It could even be that the different strains accumulate until it bursts.

A mental problem?

What is cause and effect? The classic thing is to ask what came first, the chicken or the egg. This problem has been in discussion for a long time and nobody has an answer.         

Stuttering is a psychic phenomenon and problem, a definition that many stuttering people agree with, but do not want to talk about. It´s not nice to be part of the psychiatric group. The question is legitimate: Why is there so much focus on the audible stuttering? The answer is probably that it is so obvious and easier to grasp. Then it may also be that it is opening a channel into the psyche. It has been shown that the major stuttering prophets in the world except that they have launched a concrete stuttering technology to work with also is knowledgeable on everything psyche units, add to this that they are each big personalities.

There are also pure psychotherapies that do not take into account the person's symptoms. They believe that one should not work with symptoms, they are rather a burden.

Am I right to feel good?

Get the "wrong" feelings

As a stutterer, it is not good to "feel wrong feelings in the body." It may also occur when you have done something really good and yet it does not feel good. The reward has been replaced with something vaguely unpleasant, at best, fades.

Everything feels wrong

What drives me when I want to buy a house? The decision can be made on practical grounds that it is better to have a house for kids to grow up in instead of an apartment. Emotions govern with whom I want to live in the house. Fortunately, all people have feelings. Our ability to feel and experience can, however, vary considerably. Everyone is entitled to the good feelings. And let's hold that a stutterer´s feelings are as important as anyone else´s.

Sadness
It becomes harder to speak if you are sad. Man is rational, I have argued for many times – the sadness was a discovery I made at an early stage. I did something about it and decided to be happy and always have a smile and laugh at hand. I also had humor, unfortunately, sometimes at the expense of others. This was my way of surviving, my way of dealing with these super-human problems. Now when the laughter has ended, I have become more normal, probably as boring as everyone else.

Employers and others had trouble reading my body language, they were simply confused and in some cases angry. I was sensitive, I did not want to show my whole self, so I added the smoke screen as a protection. The managers felt that I was not serious enough with what I was doing, but it was not the case, quite the opposite, I just did not show how vulnerable I was.

Lennart was my best friend when I was teenager. When I walked the long way to him, I was so sorry I did not know what else to do with myself. Much was depending on the lack of harmony in our home. Once outside Lennart's door, I stood with the widest smile - I was happy, a joy that in fact in itself was contagious.    
Pain
We have all of us probably heard of pain, especially in the songs - pain and heart. The question is whether we really have thought about the word in more detail. Painful or if it hurts me.

In the Identity Therapy I came in contact with the real pain. Together with other participants I conjured severe pain over my life-long stuttering problem. What I experienced was something new and powerful, as powerful as when a woman gives birth. I speak here of great hidden forces that exist in our bodies. The strange thing is that most of us are not even aware of them.

This phenomenon, I felt in my processing of my stuttering. Real pain really hurts. There is actually  something undefined in the subconscious mind as I in this particular therapy knew.

The really deep pain is hard to describe, it is very powerful and you need to take it seriously.

I fought for my existence

If it was because I was stuttering, I know not but the start of school proved to be a disaster for the little kid who I was.

The problems came in the first class

It started early with minor recurrences. At that time it was my playmates that were important. We built houses and did everything possible. The most evil thing we did was to throw a baby viper into the anthill to see how it would resolve the situation. The most serious event was when I jumped down a big rock. There was a broken bottle. I landed with the wrist in the middle of the veins, which luckily held. It was bleeding heavily. For some reason I never got to the doctor so it was a large scar as a memory from childhood. Playmates were good in many ways. Kurt and Bernt Eriksson, they were known in the community, talked to everyone and everything. They defended me in difficult situations. They were my security. The first year in school stuttering was a real problem. But then it became the worse.       

I fought for my existence

It felt like I was snatched away from my playmates. Bernt was the "best friend.” We were not in the same class because he was a year older, so he started a year earlier. The security that I had enjoyed no longer existed. During breaks, I could be with Bernt and Kurt, but it did not prevent me from feeling lonely. Now I had to defend myself. I was literally fighting for my existence. During a break, I was in a quarrel with one of my new classmates in the schoolyard. There was a large ring with school children around us fighters. Who won I do not remember. Maybe it was not even a winner. Possibly it was establishing a "pecking order" or it was the guy who I was with  who did not like my  I stuttering.

The first year of school was a "living hell"

The expression is strong. It is said by me as an adult. As a child I was nice and smooth. I was a nice kid who had problems that could not be overcome. My parents certainly did what they could to help me. The difficulty of stutter was so great that I could not even talk to my mom. I stamped to make the blockings fall off.

The cause was a "bitch" Martensson

When I made the film "Is stuttering something to hook up on?" I interviewed Bernt that I managed to get in touch with after 35 years. In a secure and compelling way he explained to me "It was the old lady Martensson who caught up with you and gave you a beating. After this you began to stammer. The reason was that we were beating up her kid." What should I believe! This came unexpectedly and from a close source. It was certainly his view.

Parents in need of a concrete reason for their child´s stuttering

According to my parents my stuttering was caused by the fact that I walked as a child on grass that proved to be a water body with tufts of grass. I fell between grass tussocks and almost drowned. On another occasion they said that I had been in an accident - I ran into a bike that was in motion. The latter, I remember. Probably, I already had a light repeating stuttering established at the time.

ADOLESCENCE









A number of people in our country have stuttered. Here we distinguish between those with less stuttering and those who actually experience it as a problem. Many are free from their stuttering before age 20, so prognosis for cure is very good. When I have talked to those who have earlier have stuttered I have been asking them how they did to be stutter free. The answers are consistently the same: "I do not know, it fell over a long period of time.” One argued that it acquires a certain way of speaking. The speed of speech is important.         

Treatment
Stuttering Treatment is difficult, few would dare it, and few dare to go for it. If the school's speech therapist has a stuttering student of his clinic she will refer the student to anyone involved in stuttering. That's nice. But where turns the teenager to get help? Probably he pays a visit to the district hospital for medical attention. There, he will first discuss it with a phoniatrician recommending any of the department's speech therapists. He may not be an audible stutterer - in stuttering circles, he goes under the name "hidden" stutterers. He may have other problems as well, pain in the palate, the jaw locks up, the tongue is tense and painful, or that his lips hurt at the slightest exertion. Maybe he has   tics. No matter where can he find help? Maybe he goes to a neurologist who can prescribe some relaxing pills. If he isn´t helped by this he can go to a psychologist or try some other treatment that may seem more or less suspicious. When he has joined the team around and tried the society's healthcare system in all its stages, he gets into a pure stuttering therapy or in a stuttering association.

Who am I?

I myself want to reconstruct a case based on my experiences. The password is security. How to be safe and peaceful? Security can be on different levels. When the security feels dull it is left.                   

A period of uncertainty arises in connection with the daring to do new things. We can call it development. Those who always live in insecurity are permanently insecure.

Are you aware of reality and have some self-awareness you know what situations that houses security. For the vast majority the basic security is probably best back of the home and workplace, the most important thing. During adolescence you pose the question "Who am I, and who can give me answers to all questions? The issue may recur on a regular basis in life.

Increased confidence

The youth who break away from their parents will undoubtedly be in crisis. His or her goal is to seek protection again. It functions in the same way that he tries to do well in many different situations that result in increased self-confidence.

They seek out groups where they thrive and become accepted. It is a must. The option is not often there. The same is true for those who stutter.

Positive experiences of speech are a good idea to collect many stuttering in stuttering associations bear witness about. Ordinary measures should not be too great an obstruction. The goal is success - often with advantage.            

What I'm saying is to be clearly seen and confirmed in my new role as almost an adult. Achieving this for the stuttering both the mental and the physical symptoms diminish. Examples of secondary physical symptoms that are stamping your foot, switching feet, posing in a cramped position, snapping your fingers – above all, any movement which is to distract the convulsive blockage.

Many young people in puberty have a hard time. New experiences make them hardened and the need to keep a straight face increases which then solidifies.

A soft and sympathetic approach to their environment may be the opposite. The need to be natural can be the underlying flow. The prerequisite for this is the tenderness and love from the environment but also have a functioning social safety net of close friends. This may be the alternative to the destructive tendencies to smoke, drink alcohol, or try drugs. Drug use is common in adolescence. Finally, we will not forget how important it is that young people have a deep relationship – a person who can get involved in their problems.

The social network?

Most people are included in one or more groups, such as a family, working community or peer group. This causes some social control of the individual. Groups make demands and develop rules for how to behave. This social control in all its various forms restricts the individual's behavior to more or less regulated procedures. If for any reason you are excluded, the risk of a self-destructive development increases.

The prognosis is good

Youth in puberty is difficult. Sometimes it lasts for seven years. Are young people also difficult stutterers, they are in one sense fixed. We must rejoice that so many people make their way out of their stuttering at this age.

Youth Therapies

The established stutter therapists often have therapies tailored for young people.

                        A GOOD WAY TO INFORM THE CLASS

PRIVATE

TO MY CLASSMATES     

Joel,13 years old, did not write to the journal Communication himself and talk about the letter he wrote to his class teacher, but I, his speech therapist, was happy to do it.

The reason for the letter was that Joel's friends sometimes filled in words or otherwise interrupted him, and he thought it was tough. This is his letter  to his class teacher:

Hi, this is what I want you to say to the classes about my stuttering.      
Anyone can start to stutter, it's not anything you are beyond the control of. I find it hard to stutter sometimes. What is the hardest is that it takes time to get the words. Sometimes I might be silent because of it.

I want people to wait until I´ve finished talking, even if it takes some time and I do not want them to go away. That they should listen to what I say, not how I say it.

If it is difficult to hear what I say sometimes, tell me in a nice way and I'll repeat it. I also do not want them to fill in the words for me. I go to a speech therapist to help me stutter less, I get to learn different tricks, but it is quite difficult. If anyone is wondering something, just ask. (PS.Tell both classes. DS)                        

/ Joel.

In advance, Joel had made it clear that he wanted to go outside, when the class teacher had to inform his comrades.           

After a while in the hallway Joel heard applause! When they had a break there were several children  who came up to him and spoke.             

Now, none of Joel's classmates fill out or otherwise interrupt him.

/ Lennart Larsson

Speech Therapy in Falun

(This notice is put up additions in 2007).