Specific words

[Anonymous]

I understand this is a common comment, and ill try to pose the question in a positive way, rather than reinforcing the habit.

Do others find certain crutches to be more effective with specific letters/words/syllables etc.

I generally find word linkage to be my go to crutch, but i find it sometimes difficult to use in on certain letters. Primarily i find it difficult to link in to the letters t’s, d’s, g’s, b’s etc. I think these tend to be plosive constants. Any thoughts on practicing this, or any suggestions on which crutches might work better in these examples.

[Javier]

Hi Mark!
I’m glad you asked this. Many people fear specific letters, but that is just fear. We can link words beginning with any letter. If some letters are harder for you, it is because you are hesitating, so you are “interrupting” the word linkage. Word linkage works if we don’t leave any spaces between syllables and words, because there won’t be any space for stutters. This will only work if we focus 100% on linking our words and not hesitating while speaking.

So, my advice is:

1) If the feared word is at the beginning of a sentence, or after a full stop/pause, begin with any of the Crutches 1-8.

2) If the feared word is in the middle of the sentence, using word linkage is a good option (Crutch 10), but any of Crutches 7-12 should do the job.

3) Even if this feared word is at the middle of the sentence, you can insert a pause (2 seconds) before that word, and then say the feared word holding the tone. This Crutch works great and it is helping a lot of PWS. I strongly recommend you to go to the videos of the coaching sessions and simply search for “holding the tone”. You’ll find plenty of videos explaining and showing how to do it.

I hope this has been helpful.

[Anonymous]

Great advice Javie. I would add that there are 13 crutches, and there is therefore absolutely no need to force yourself to use just one crutch in any particular circumstance. I have had many situations where I was simply more comfortable using a different crutch than the one I would usually gravitate to. The more crutches that you have at your disposal, the better.

However please let go of the belief that certain crutches only work in certain situations, this is the same brain that is telling us that we only stutter on certain words or to certain people. While yes this may be the case, it is due to our choosing to do so. If you need assistance practising the crutches, why don’t you watch choose from our huge selection of videos on our website? Better yet, sign up for coaching and you will receive one on one coaching by one of our certified coaches here at WSSA.

Good luck and keep us updated!

[Author]

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