About Stuttering

The Physical Aspects of Stuttering

To understand stuttering, it's important to understand how speech works when it does work.

Talking is actually quite miraculous and complex as many systems in the brain must be working together in a coordinated way.

A person has a thought he/she wants to express. In milliseconds of time, the brain retrieves the words and puts them in a certain order which is then expressed through a physical system of over 100 different muscles. Coordinated systems in the brain result in coordination of the speech and voice muscles = fluent speech.

Take a moment and put your fingers on your throat at the area of your Adam's apple. Feel that structure. That's your larynx. If you bring your fingers down a bit more you will feel it narrow to your windpipe. It's sort of shaped like a funnel.

The vocal cords, which are about an inch long, are shaped like a 'V' and sit across the top of the wind pipe. The open part of the 'V' is toward the back. They don't dangle in there like some people think!

When we speak, we first take in air that travels through the windpipe. The air then travels back up as the brain commands the vocal cords to move closer together. The air pressure strikes the cords and sets them into vibration.

Put your fingers back on your throat and say 'ah'. Can you feel the vibrations like a motor running? That's where our sound comes from. The sound travels up through the rest of the vocal tract as the tongue, lips and jaws change shape to form the different speech sounds. Our mouth muscles (articulators) make 500 to 600 shapes in only one minute of talking!

There is a lot going on and it's all synchronized.

Here is what's happening during moments of stuttering.

Please note that this is a general description and that there is a great deal of variability from person to person in terms of severity and one's strategies for dealing with their own stuttering.

It appears as if there is a timing problem in the communication of signals from the brain to the speech mechanism. This 'glitch' results in a tightening or closure of the vocal cords. Because of this tightening in the throat, breathing and mouth movements become forced and labored.

Now, try this. Take in a breath of air, keeping your mouth open, hold your breath. Then let little puffs of air out. Feel the sensation in your throat. You just closed your vocal cords on purpose. If you stutter, this feeling will be all too familiar. Now, do that again. Hold your breath with your mouth open, don't let any air out at all and try to speak.

If you don't stutter you have just created the physical sensation of what we call blocking. You know what you want to say but imagine trying to speak and nothing comes out. Those who stutter experience this all the time. It's as if they are choking when trying to speak.

Actually, the brain 'thinks' that the person IS choking so the breathing also gets thrown off. The brain kicks in a struggle response in the form of pushing, gasping, etc. Again, this response varies in severity.

In a reflexive attempt to help the person speak, the mouth muscles (articulators) then kick into 'overdrive' to compensate for the vocal cords that aren't 'working'. This is the aspect of stuttering that most people see; the struggle, excessive muscle tension and excessive movements. What is going on with the articulators can take many different forms.

Given these physical circumstances, these responses are all absolutely normal, natural and human. It is a physical system that isn't working well so the rest of the body parts try to compensate.

• Fluent speech is the result of coordinated brain systems.
• Stuttering is the result of uncoordinated brain systems.

Program Calendar

Intensive programs are first-come, first-serve. The summer ones fill up quickly.

2010 PROGRAM DATES

• January 4-22
• May 10-28
• July 5-23
• July 26-30 Refresher
• Aug 9-27
• Oct 4-22
• Nov 29-Dec 17

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American Institute for Stuttering
27 West 20th St. Suite 1203
New York, NY 10011

phone: (212) 633-6400
fax: (212) 220-3922

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