If you are a person who stutters, this means that your speech pattern contains an abnormal amount of disruptions that stop the forward flow of speech due to their frequency or duration. A disruption in speech is called a disfluency. Fluency is the effortless flow of speech, and stuttering affects all four parts of fluency:
Continuity
Continuity is decreased by where and how often pauses happen in speech, and by how many extra sounds are added, such as “um”, “uh”, repeating, or re-wording. It is defined as the smoothness of speech, or how much speech is affected by disfluency.
Rate
Rate is how fast or slow speech is, measured by words/syllables spoken per minute. It relates to information flow and sound flow. The rate of information and sound flow is too slow for people who stutter.
Rhythm
The rhythmic pattern of speech depends on intonation, stress pattern, timing, and duration. People who stutter have disruptions that are louder, longer, and higher-pitched, making their disfluencies more noticeable.
Effort
Effort in stuttering is how much mental or physical work it takes to talk. Normal speech is not effortful. People who stutter have to exert more effort in order to try to sound fluent. It takes mental effort to think ahead of time to prepare the words a person who stutters is about to say. Physical effort is exerted to stop getting stuck on a word.
How Can SpeechEasy Help?
Disruptions may occur frequently, and can sometimes be accompanied by secondary behaviors in facial structures, frequent interjections, or speech utterances. Other correspondencies may include negative cognitive and emotional reactions or avoidance behaviors, including avoidance of sounds, words, and specific speaking situations. If you struggle with stuttering, try SpeechEasy. We know that finding fluency isn’t simple, so you should know we are here to support you along the way – from purchase to years down the road! Get started today by scheduling an appointment.
