Mind Games

[Dean Lovett]

Prathusa and Javier,

I know you have both started to implement games for students that work both on the mind and also to encourage students to think ideas and not words. This is a great idea. Can you explain a little further? Are you using this technique with all your students, or just in certain cases. Adding some more “fun” to coaching sessions will be well received, in my view. Great idea and look forward to watching this develop further.

[Javier]

Hi Ken!
Prathusha invented quite an interesting mind game a few weeks ago, and it proves that stuttering occurs when we plan our words. What it does is that it keeps your mind too busy to plan your words, so there is no way you can stutter if you follow the rules of this game. It’s really worth watching some of Prathusha’s coaching sessions.
I am beginning to implement it, but I still haven’t had the chance to implement it with all the people that I coach.
But so far I’ve done other kind of “games” that prove that if we don’t plan our words and speak with immediacy, we will never stutter. We only need to have a basic idea of what we want to speak, that’s all.

[Anonymous]

Hi Ken,

I am going to use some games in my next session and which will prove even further to my PWS that we choose to stutter when we plan and focus on our words. When we do sessions with our PWS and we make it fun, they are sometimes completely fluent and their minds are blown away. At the end of the session, they will say “I just went a whole hour without stuttering”.

I remember in a few of my coaching sessions I would ask my PWS to tell me a story but using the crutches. The more interesting the topics were, the more fluent they were without fail. I do not think that this is a coincidence.

Bottom line: When we do not focus on words but focus on what we want to say instead, we are essentially fluent speakers. This is how fluent speakers speak, they do not even know what they are about to say next, their words just flow from their mouths (like all of mine do now). Many PWS do not realize how fun self-curing can be. It does not have to be a chore, one does not have to look at using the crutches as effort. Sure it takes concentration, but one has to make a game out of it. For example, reading aloud can be made really fun if we pace up and down the room, use accents for the different characters, completely exaggerate our words, use hand gestures, really get involved in the story we are reading. To this day while reading aloud, I pretend that I am an on stage in a theatre production and everyone there has come to see me, this huge celebrity, act out this show. It gets a kick out of my boyfriend, I have fun while doing it, and it reinforces the fluency habit on a daily basis because my mind keeps hearing so much fluency.

Has anybody else made a game out of practising the crutches/reading aloud, if so let us know how!

[Prathusha Ravi]

Hi Ken,

I completely agree with Tasneem and Javier !!

Javier inspired me to bring on some mind games while coaching the PWS. So, the mind game I use in my sessions are called “RAPID FIRE” so it goes like this !! When I ask the 1st question to the PWS, he/she must not answer it but when I ask him the 2nd question he should answer for the 1st question and when I ask him the 3rd question, he should answer for the 2nd question which I asked earlier and it goes on and on…

So, basically this game keeps their mind completely occupied because when I ask them the 2nd question they need to focus on the question that I’m asking and at the same time they need to formulate the answer for the 1st question which I asked them earlier!! So, this proves that when a mind concentrates on more than one thing it is impossible to stutter.

Stutter occurs when a person starts “PLANNING WORDS” and this game stops them from doing that 🙂

[Doug Nelson]

Ken,
I have seen the techniques that they have used and it is mind blowing. The Rapid Fire game that Prathusha does helps me a lot. It does not give you the chance to think of the question. It is very amazing. When using these techniques it will train your mind to not worry about the first feared word.
Doug

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