Freezing

Here is a technique from David Ward’s book “Stuttering and Cluttering”. I have used it some and it teaches you to remain calm when it is MOST needed- ie. when you are stuttering. Once you learn this, then you can build other technique on top of it- like block modification, eye contact etc. First practice this alone. Then with a mirror. Then with your pet mamba, cat or dog. Then on phone. Then with your best buddy etc. From easy to difficult situations. “..FREEZING This is a technique where, in the middle of a moment of stuttering, the client is called upon by the clinician to freeze the vocal tract and continue to hold the posture until told to release it. For example, a “frozen” prolongation would require a further stretching of the sound, whilst a block would continue to be held with the same degree of tension, in silence. To start with the moment of freezing is fleeting, but the length increases with practice. To help desensitize the client to listener reaction, the clinician may fake impatience or other negative behavior into the reaction. Repeated practice of this routine helps the client become more tolerant of the core stuttering behaviors, and also to develop a resistance to the feeling of time pressure and the perceived need to move forward quickly with speech, even if this is likely to result in increased struggle and more stuttering…”