Reactions and responses to anticipation of stuttering and how they contribute to stuttered speech that listeners perceive as fluent – An opinion paper

Abstract

The experience of stuttering is wide ranging and includes a variety of perceived and unperceived behaviors and experiences. One of those experiences is anticipation of stuttering. While anticipation of stuttering is commonly discussed in terms of being a prediction of an upcoming event, it has also been equated to an internal realization of stuttering – which is the conceptualization applied here. The aim of this paper is to impress upon the reader that anticipated moments of stuttering (whether at a conscious or subconscious level) must be met with an adaptive reaction or response (which may also occur consciously or subconsciously). While these adaptive reactions and responses may differ based on whether they promote positive or negative communicative behaviors, they still represent adaptations by the speaker. Among the broad category of reactions and responses to anticipation of stuttering are motoric adaptations to speech, which include characteristic stuttering behaviors and other adaptations that may contribute to speech that is perceived by listeners as fluent. An outcome of this conceptualization is, even when adaptations result in listener perceived fluency, the speech of the person who stutters is still controlled by stuttering – meaning that some observable or unobservable adaptation is required. It is critical that speech-language pathologists recognize that the behaviors of people who stutter may reflect reactions and responses to an internal realization of stuttering and observable and unobservable reactions and responses must be considered in both assessments and interventions.