Voluntary Stuttering
Voluntary stuttering is a methodology which is common to many counter stuttering programmes and systems. Its aim is to desensitise the stutterer to the symptoms of their stuttering so they don't become so self conscious about it and in the process stimulate a circle of fear feedback. The approach proposes that people who stutter should also try stuttering in situations where they feel comfortable and where they feel they are going to be fluent. This supposedly also gives the stutterer a feeling of control over their stuttering: they have controlled the situation and chosen to stutter rather than the usual scenario where the stutter controls the stutterer by unwelcome interference in the fluency of their speech against their wishes.
Voluntary stuttering would veer to the side of the argument that stuttering is a defined condition of the stutterer, and that therapy should revolved around means of dealing with it and controlling it as much as possible rather than attempting to cure the condition completely.
Whatever view you take: whether stuttering is incurable per se and that the stutterer should develop means of controlling and treating it when it emerges, or whether it is curable either completely or to a greater extent, voluntary stuttering can be useful. It can be a means of dealing with the fear cycle which often accompanies disfluency in speech and often proves to be a useful therpeutical tool to aleviate the symptoms of stuttering.
One of the tools used in the context of voluntary stuttering is the slide, as promoted by the Sheehan methodology. Sliding is a method used to increase fluency by prolonging the first consonant in a word; thus you slide into the word. Sliding should be practised on random words and not just feared ones. For example; how are yyyyyou feeling abbbbbbbbout now? Sliding on words is seen as a compromise to deliberately stuttering on words though sliding itself is of course a form of disfluency. By sliding on non-feared words, it should become easier to slide on feared words when required. Sliding also can circumvent disfluency as a whole; perhaps the voluntary stuttering obviates the need to stutter in other circumstances? Sliding encourages slower speech which has in itself been shown to increase fluency.
Users of the method though have to be careful to ensure that they are actually sliding their words to a sufficient extent (i.e. assssssign rather than asssign). While it may make users uncomfortable and self conscious, especially at the start, experimentation with the duration and frequency of slides can prove useful in becoming more at ease with the method.
Initially, I would have identified voluntary stuttering with sliding. I have now revised by view on the matter. I now would see voluntary stuttering and sliding as two distinct methodologies. I now identify voluntary stuttering as actual deliberate stuttering. For example, "How m-m-m-m-much is that magazine". A similar sentencing could be slid up as "How mmmmuch is that magazine". Voluntary stuttering is staccato like and undisputably stutternig. Sliding is sluring the start of a sentence and may not be identifiable as stuttering. When slides are used, the speaker can often categorise their speech as fluent in their own minds, especially if the slides are not prolonged. In that sense they can arguably be defined as a trick or crutch. With voluntary stuttering, the speaker is deliberately advertising their disfluency. However, they are doing it on their own terms and their own volition. The other difference is that they should hopefully be stuttering without the tension associated with involuntary stuttering. One of core premises of stuttering theory is that the stutterers speech is not as bad as he or she thinks it really is. Tied in with this is the fact that most normal so called fluent speakers often stumble on their speech and exhibit some of the traits associated with stuttering such as repititions, etc. The main difference is their apparent lack of tension and self consciousness when this occurs. Voluntary stuttering is arguably a facsimile of such behaviour; it is also a direct attack on the material beneath the surface in the iceberg model, dealing directly with the fear and apprehension that is associated with stuttering.
I avoided voluntary stuttering, apart from sliding, for a long time, seeing it as counter-intuitive. Why would one deliberately and incontrovertibly stutter when I was trying desperately trying hard to stop stuttering? While I am still very new to the practice of it, the initial answer I would give, based on recent experience, is normalisation and control of speech. Voluntary stuttering when you are experiencing general fluency seems to even out extremes in fluency; you don't go from a general ease of fluency to a polar opposite situation of disfluency. It is also a methodology that does seem to work when you are hit by a period of exacerbated disfluency. While I have found sliding to be largely useless when I hit such situations, voluntary stuttering has worked in certain circumstances in these scenarios (i.e. putting in voluntary stutters on words I feel I will have no trouble with). While I found the initial results of my experimentation with voluntary stuttering very encouraging and possibly even startling, I have experienced downturns in fluency since. Voluntary stuttering is one of the more difficult methodologies for the reasons outlined above; it is also like many other methologies easy to forget to do, especially when you experience a period of fluency. I intend to begin a new period of application of the method, and will post my future results as an addendum to this page.