Above is a video created by Pamela Mertz, a person who stutters and the host of the website, www.stutterrockstar.com/. In this video, she articulately describes and provides examples of voluntary stuttering (stuttering on purpose).
There are three main rationales for using voluntary stuttering.
1. To desensitize, or get used to, a moment of disfluency.
When a person stutters, they often have an immediate and sometimes negative reaction to the moment of disfluency. This reaction may manifest as eye blinks, head nods, tension in the lips, tongue or cheeks, lip smacking, irregular breathing etc. Voluntary stuttering can help a person work towards reducing that reaction and tension, leaving a more comfortable form of stuttering. A person may also choose to purposefully use “hard” stuttering to reduce their reaction to moments of tense disfluency.
There are three main rationales for using voluntary stuttering.
1. To desensitize, or get used to, a moment of disfluency.
When a person stutters, they often have an immediate and sometimes negative reaction to the moment of disfluency. This reaction may manifest as eye blinks, head nods, tension in the lips, tongue or cheeks, lip smacking, irregular breathing etc. Voluntary stuttering can help a person work towards reducing that reaction and tension, leaving a more comfortable form of stuttering. A person may also choose to purposefully use “hard” stuttering to reduce their reaction to moments of tense disfluency.