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The 411 on Cancellations 

6/10/2013

5 Comments

 
This is a speech tool I use with clients as they begin to gain the ability to monitor their own speech.   Every child reaches this point at a different time, but I find that this often begins to happen around 7-8 years of age.  Instead of modifying every phrase/sentence (as seen in Easy Speech), cancellations are only modifying speech that is disfluent.  

WHAT ARE CANCELLATIONS?
  • Classified as a stuttering modification strategy
  • Used after a disfluency occurs 
  • Produces a less tense and more "forward-moving" disfluency 
  • Requires you to pause following a moment of disfluency
  • In the time that you pause, you can identify where the tension occurs (i.e. mouth, tongue, jaw, etc.) and work on releasing it
  • Requires you to initiate speech again in a more forward-moving way (i.e. may use light contact or a stretch when initiating speech again after the pause, if necessary).  
WHY DO CANCELLATIONS WORK?
  • Improves ability to monitor or "catch" your disfluencies
  • Although disfluencies are often out of a person's control, cancellations help demonstrate a person's ability to make a choice in using more comfortable stuttering (i.e. less tension).  
  • The pause following the disfluency is practice in fighting time pressure- time pressure often being a trigger for increased disfluencies.
WHAT DO CANCELLATIONS SOUND LIKE? 
  • "My, um, my nnnn, um, my na-na-naame (pause, release tension)...name is Brooke"
  • The above example is of someone who uses fillers (um) to avoid the word he/she can not "get on", which is "name."  Instead of resorting to using fillers, the aim is to "get on the sound" using the cancellation, a much more forward-moving form of stuttering. 


Listen to the audio of this example above!
Have any questions of comments about Cancellations?  
5 Comments
Lynn Sandene
4/7/2016 10:29:16 am

The example and explanation of what to do was very helpful.

Reply
Edward Biggs
11/11/2016 07:37:20 am

Can visualization of speaking freely in the cancellation process help?

Reply
Brooke Leiman link
11/11/2016 10:53:36 am

Edward-

I'm not sure I'm understanding what you mean by visualizing speaking freely? Typically during the cancellation, I encourage the client to identify the location of tension. If you'd like to use visualization, maybe you can think of it as visualizing the release of tension, wherever that tension may be.

Reply
Janet Morgan link
4/1/2019 05:28:09 pm

This has been so helpful. My current student has final-word repetition and fills with "um". Many answers to questions begin with "um" and he is fluent until the end of the phrase or sentence. For example:
"What are you going to do at your Dad's this weekend?" "Ummmm...we're going fishing...ing"
"What do you do with the fish you catch?"
"Ummmm..it depends...ends."

For cancelation, would I direct him to begin the sentence again without the um and repeat the last word as a whole? For instance, "Ummm....we are...We are going fishing..ing,,,fishing."?

Thanks!!

Reply
Brooke Leiman
4/15/2019 01:17:39 pm

What you're describing would be two cancellations- 1 on "we" (because presumably the 'Um" is masking a stuttering moment on the first word of the sentence) and then another cancellation on "fishing."

That's a tough question to respond to- I would say it all has to do with your rationale. If you're working on building his tolerance of stuttering so that he reduce his reliance on "um" to hide the stuttering moment then yes using a cancellation on "um" would be helpful. However, I feel as though using a cancellation that requires him to go back more than one word and restart the sentence makes the sentence hard to follow. In terms of working on overall communication- I think open stuttering would actually help him more effectively communicate his message. Hope this helps!

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    Brooke Leiman MA, CCC-SLP, BCS-F Director of the Stuttering Clinic at National Therapy Center
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