“Blanking when using the crutches”

[Anonymous]

I have many PWS tell me that they go blank when they need to use the crutches. What do you think is the cause of this? Of course, I know the answer, but I am curious to hear what others have to say.

Let me know how you overcame “blanking”. What did you do to be able to use the crutches effortlessly, without a thought?

[Gábor]

I think the answer is: practice, practice, practice 🙂

[Javier]

It took me a while to avoid blanking and realise that there was actually another option: becoming a Speech Cop, stop forcing the word, and using a Crutch instead. As Gábor says, practice, practice and practice.
But there is something else that lso helped me: taking it as a challenge. I’m not going to stutter, no matter what. I’m going to use the Crutches, if needed in every single word.
This approach helped me a lot.

[Clifton]

Non-stutterers talk to other people like they walk around everyday. It’s not anything special unless it’s a really important person they’re speaking with. For stutterers every conversation is something they have to think about, prepare for, worry about, try to avoid, freak out about, and so on…

Part of learning crutches for me was to realize that other people don’t care that much about how you talk, just what you’re saying. So take your time, focus on stopping when you hit a stutter, count one thousand one…. one thousand two… pull out a crutch, and continue.

We aren’t bomb technicians here, two seconds won’t kill anybody.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Clifton. As PWS, we are our harshest critics, as our whole lives, we have feared our speech. Most of my PWS have a challenge SLOWING DOWN the rate of their speech (trust me, it took me years to speak slower, and I STILL speak fast).

I had to learn that people were not going to rush me if I slowed down my speech a bit. I also had to learn that I was not boring people, I always tried to speak as fast as possible because I believed that I bored people.

Lastly, I learned that people actually APPRECIATED it when I spoke slowly and confidently. Not only could they process what I had just said a lot easier, but they were more interested in my speech because I seemed more interested in my own speech.

I tried this with one of my PWS the other day. We practice him speaking in a monotone voice, and then we practice him speaking with passion, joy and enthusiasm. It was like night and day, and he admitted that he felt a bit weird, but that he knew that he sounded better!

[Author]

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