Recover From Stuttering - Relax and Use Good Breathing Techniques

Relaxed breathing is very important in stuttering treatment. Without the breath / the ability to breathe, no living creature on Earth would survive. The simplicity of the inbreath followed by the outbreath could be looked on as the rhythm of life. In its simplest form, when human beings are in their most relaxed state, like sleeping or slumped in a comfy chair at home, the breath is even and in rhythm with the needs of the body. The rhythm of breathing is automatic, thank heavens, we don't even have to think about it. When we are not relaxed, our heart rate elevates. This is usually caused by:

• Physical and / or
• Emotional activity

During physical activity, the rate of breathing is lifted to ensure that the body is getting enough oxygen. Muscles require oxygen to function. As physical activity intensifies, the breathing rate increases. This is relative to the increase in that activity. Emotional activity is complex and any attempt to discuss this human trait in any level of detail would not at all serve the purpose of this topic. Suffice it to say that emotional activity is tied to a large extent with metabolic activity within the body and any increase in the body's metabolic activity sees an increased demand for oxygen and thus an increase in respiration rate.

What does this have to do with recovering from stuttering?

If we look at the other 99% of the population who don't stutter, speech is not an issue for them. Speech is as simple as the breathing process itself.

If we study the speech process of the majority of non-stutterers, and listen to their speech pattern carefully, we will notice that there is an obvious rhythm to their breathing and speech. There is a solid phrase pause, phrase pause pattern in play with the breath being inserted at appropriate points throughout their speech. These patterns obviously vary from person to person, but one common thread exists. They have a built-in relaxed phrase pause pattern that has driven their speech since they began to talk, they fall into a well-trodden fluent path every time they open their mouths to speak. They do this apparently simple thing without even thinking! We all have thousands of these pathways set up in our brains. Known as neural pathways, these are really just sets of neurons that fire together in set sequences within our brains. We establish solid neural pathways from repeating procedures that may be as simple as feeding ourselves and brushing our teeth to complicated routines such as, carrying out brain surgery or striking a golf ball. In fact, the human brain develops and stores a pathway for each routine that we choose to undertake in our lives. Everyone capable of speech has a neural pathway set in place for that purpose.

In terms of a person with a stutter, his neural pathway for speech tends to be cluttered with emotional debris, negative perceptions of how he feels others see him and his dysfluency. From this negativity, many people who stutter develop poor self-concepts. I liken this to a bird's nest of negative causal thoughts that have accumulated over years of dealing with the stutter. When we (stutterers) battle to employ our neural pathway for speech, it's like trying to negotiate a minefield while wearing a blindfold, there is just too much going on and too much stress. The battle to expel the words in some coherent pattern is often disjointed to the point where the breathing system is jerky, uneven and unlikely to allow fluent speech.

As mentioned, fluent speakers fall in to a predetermined pathway for speech which is rhythmical and relaxed. If we listen closely to stuttering speech, in most cases, there is no rhythm and it is definitely not relaxed. The phrase pause relationship between the speech and the breath is erratic, and generally inappropriate for what has been said.

It is important to seek out speech therapy programs that spend a deal of time on breathing modification and reverting back to the basics of speech in trying to establish a solid and relaxed phrase pause, phrase pause relationship. Often the use of slow diaphragmatic breathing coupled with prolonged or smooth speech technique gives recovering stutterers an excellent foundation of control. With a technique that offers you control over your rhythm of speech and pausing, you will have every chance of managing your stutter to the point where it can be a mere glitch on the path of life.

Join me on our quest for speech fluency.

Dave E is one of the directors of Ezy-Speech, a complete in-home stuttering therapy and support program for adolescents and adults. Ezy-Speech has been developed via a successful collaboration between both specialist clinicians and recovering stutterers. For more information, visit the website: www.ezyspeech.com.au. Information about Ezy-Speech can also be found on the Australian Speak Easy Association website.