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| The wear and tear of everyday life, May 2010 |
There's a concept in speech-language pathology that the way a person stutters is a map of all the tricks he (or she) has tried to avoid getting stuck in their speech. Imagine a child who suddenly finds that what he wants to say will not come out. He's stuck. So he pushes against the block and if the word comes out, then the "push" is reinforced as a way to get unstuck. A push can take many forms: part word repetitions, whole word reps, prolongations of sounds, eye blinks, adding new words, changing words, head bobs, ... you name it. All the things a person does to avoid getting stuck become the stutter that we all see. (I've been on both sides of the stuttering fence as a client and now as a clinician.)
I saw a new one recently. My client, when stuck, would inhale and try to push the word out, but the word didn't come so he inhaled again and again and again until he was so ready to burst that the word shot out like an orange in a tailpipe. His pitch was high, his volume was high, and I suspect his blood pressure was high. But the trick worked and the word came out.
This client also had a hoarse voice. At first I thought it was just a coincidence that he had two communication disorders and that I'd deal with the voice problem after working on the stuttering. The thing is, now that his stuttering is under control (8 weeks and he's gone from 15% syllables stuttered to less than 1%) his voice is no longer hoarse. I think his stutter was so severe that it was damaging his vocal folds. That's how hard he was trying to get past his blocks!
I love my job.
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4 comments:
it's great to be able to help people to overcome things that have held them back
My job? if i never turned up again the world would be no worse and no better
What a thing to be able to make a difference
I can only echo what DFTP has said.
Hi there regular readers
I’m really sorry to have to tell you that due to circumstances beyond my control Don’t Feed The Pixies has had to be deleted and will probably be gone by the time you read this.
I had gone to pains to keep my name off the web and had changed the names and places of those involved where speaking about someone or something – but it seems that I have not been careful enough and so to protect myself from any future problems I have had to quit the site.
Thank you for providing light in a tunnel of dullness. I came to the blog world in hope of finding others out there who I might have something in common with, or were just other lost souls looking for new ideas and new thoughts – I have enjoyed meeting you all.
I am not sure whether this blog will continue in any other form. Thank you for visiting
Michael - i will particularly miss you, your philosophy and your fantastic photos. They have brought me more joy than you can know
Thanks friends. Don't be so hasty with the idea that I don't make a difference with my job. It's all in how you look at it and I'm pretty sure there's more to your lives than just your job.
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