Responses to Anticipation
Though not all speakers may be cognizant of anticipation, it can have a variety of effects on the speaker. Anticipation may elicit active or passive responses, which Jackson refers to as action and non-action responses respectively, as indicated in his study:
Action responses: Observable changes to the speech production process
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- Avoidance strategies: Any behavioral attempt to hide or escape from the possibility of stuttering
- Adding meaningless speech like “um” and “ah”
- Avoiding situations
- Not talking
- Body movements
- Stalling speech
- Looking away or pretending to use a device
- Avoidance strategies: Any behavioral attempt to hide or escape from the possibility of stuttering
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- Self-management strategies: Traditional therapy strategies that may vary based on a person’s experience with speech-language pathology
- Analyzing the situation
- Focusing on speech production
- Changing their rate of speech
- Incorporating pseudo-stuttering to desensitize actual stuttering
- Breathing techniques
- Positive self-talk
- Changing speech volume
- Self-management strategies: Traditional therapy strategies that may vary based on a person’s experience with speech-language pathology
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- Approach strategies: When a speaker makes a conscious and deliberate decision to move forward with communication even if they think they may stutter
Non-action responses: When a speaker does not make an active choice to change their speech plan
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- Experiencing anxiety or uncertainty
- Becoming physically tense
- Loss of control
- Negative emotional reactions like embarrassment, fear, and shame
- Confidence reduction
- Reduced social awareness and presence during a conversation
How to Leverage Anticipation
Jackson emphasized that anticipation can be a tool to help anyone who speaks become more attuned to their speech production process.
“Treatment as we view it focuses on facilitating productive responses to anticipation, with the sometimes indirect effect of reducing anticipation itself,” he said.
According to Jackson’s 2015 study, participants surveyed had mixed responses regarding whether anticipation is helpful or harmful for speech production. Therefore, people who stutter, in addition to their parents, SLPs, educators, and employers, should discuss how anticipation makes them feel before trying to incorporate it into behavioral change.1
Because of the variety in individual experiences, it’s important for people to work with speakers to identify behaviors that most empower their ability to communicate freely and confidently.
SLPs and others communicating with people who stutter can guide discussions to better understand a person’s thought process when anticipating stuttering. A few questions mentioned in Jackson’s 2018 study that may prove effective for considering anticipation include:2
- What responses can you identify when you anticipate stuttering?
- How important is it to change your responses?
- What are the pros and cons of those responses?
- How confident are you in changing your responses?
These questions, and how they can effectively be applied to conversation, can be explored by any person who stutters, or asked by an SLP, parent, educator, or peer who is invested in helping them identify moments of anticipation.
It’s important to remember that the point of addressing anticipation isn’t to avoid stuttering; it’s to become more comfortable with the incidence of stuttering and feel confident in one’s communicative abilities.
Sources
- Jackson, Eric S. et al. “Responses of Adults Who Stutter to the Anticipation of Stuttering.” Journal of Fluency Disorders,45 (2015): 38–51. PMC. Web. September 24, 2018.↑
- Jackson, et al. “My Client Knows That He’s About to Stutter: How Can We Address Stuttering Anticipation during Therapy with Young People Who Stutter?” Seminars in Speech and Language, August 24, 2018. ↑
Citation for this content: NYU Steinhardt’s online master’s in speech-language pathology.
