http://archive.aweber.com/stuttering_helpPower Stuttering Center InformationFri, 23 Apr 2010 05:00:44 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/stuttering_help/T1lL/h/Power_Stuttering_Newsletter.htm Let's Talk Volume 1 Issue 4 April 2010 In This Issue: Physiological Evidence for Stuttering People Who Stutter Helping Each Other Quick Links: About Mark Power Stuttering Information Stuttering Resources Stutter-Free Speech Program Basically, the program replaces your stuttered speech with a new way of talking which is incompatible with stuttering. You start this with a very slow rate of speaking during which you don't stutter from the first day of therapy. Gradually the rate is increased until it approximates normal speaking. At this point you are stutter-free in the clinic. The last part of the program is when you transfer this stutter-free speech into speaking situations outside the clinic and at home starting with very easy speaking situations and gradually moving to more difficult ones when you are ready. Read More > Evidence That Shows Stuttering is Physiological Not Psychological Many scientific research experiments have been conducted that compare the physiological makeup of stutterers to that of non-stutterers. During the 1980's several experiments studied the voice timing of stutterers and non-stutterers. They studied voice initiation time (VIT) or the time it takes to start your voice after a signal such as a flash of light. They found that stutterers were significantly slower at turning their voice on compare to non-stutterers. They also found that stutterers were slower to say a word. Keep in mind that the stutterers were not stuttering - this was just measuring voice reaction time. Two important conclusions can be make from these findings. (1) This difference was not caused by anxiety, stress or other psychological factors. It was a physiological difference found only in the brains of stutterers. (2) Turning your voice on and off quickly is very necessary for speaking - especially at faster rates. Since stutterers were significantly slower in this task, they might find speech production more difficult. Also, a good compensation for this might be to keep your voice on as much as possible during speech. This is the continuous phonation trained in intensive therapy programs - including the Stutter-Free Speech Program. I was quite relieved when I discovered these findings in my graduate studies. I would much rather believe that my stuttering was caused by brain timing differences that I was probably born with, than by some psychological anxiety problem that I could do nothing about and labeled me as a person with a nervous disorder. What do you think? People Who Stutter Helping Each Other After years of meeting patients in my private practice, I have seen that many people who stutter do not know any another person who stutters. Adult stutterers make up one percent of the population in the world. If you are the one in one hundred that stutters, it is very likely that you have not been able to talk to another person who stutters in your whole life. I believe it is important that you know that you are not alone with this problem. Others share your same experiences and challenges. I also believe that talking to another person who stutters can be a very healthy experience. Knowing that others are going through what you have experienced can be very helpful. Supporting one another can be life changing. Fortunately, there is a large group of people who stutter who do support each other and share experiences. They are not a therapy group, although many have had stuttering therapy. They are a not profit, self-help group whose motto is, If you stutter, you are not alone.They are the National Stuttering Association, the world's largest group of people who stutter. Log onto their website at http://www.nsastutter.org/ to locate local chapters in every state, national conferences and just a place to share information about what it's like to stutter. I helped start the Orange County, California chapter in 1982 with Annie Bradberry who became the NSA executive director for may years. You owe it to yourself to check it out. The week of May 10 - 16 is National Stuttering Awareness week. The next National Conference is in July. At past conferences, the hotel was filled with hundreds of people who stutter. They far outnumbered the non-stuttering staff. There is strength in numbers! Click Here for More Information Your Turn - Questions and Answers One of the major reasons for this newsletter is to stay in touch and be there for the people who stuttering who are interested in this type of program. Now is your chance to ask anything you want about stuttering, me, my clinic, or my therapy program. Just reply to this email with your questions. I will pick a few questions to answer next month in the newsletter. To your success! - Mark Recovered Stutterer Power Stuttering Center (949) 552-5523 mpower@powerstuttering.com Click Here for More Information Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:00:44 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/stuttering_help/orvb/h/Power_Stuttering_Center.htm Let's Talk Volume 1 Issue 3 March 2010 In This Issue: An Old Theory of the Cause of Stuttering New Research Links Genes to Stuttering Quick Links: About Mark Power Stuttering Information Stuttering Resources Stutter-Free Speech Program Basically, the program replaces your stuttered speech with a new way of talking which is incompatible with stuttering. You start this with a very slow rate of speaking during which you don't stutter from the first day of therapy. Gradually the rate is increased until it approximates normal speaking. At this point you are stutter-free in the clinic. The last part of the program is when you transfer this stutter-free speech into speaking situations outside the clinic and at home starting with very easy speaking situations and gradually moving to more difficult ones when you are ready. Read More > An Old Theory of Stuttering For many years, speech pathologists, and doctors thought that stuttering was the result of poor parenting during the early years of childhood. They thought that some parents caused normal speaking pre-school children to stutter be calling too much attention to the natural mistakes in talking that their child was making so that the child became nervous an started to stutter. Actually, the theory sounded like it was possible and for decades was believed and even taught in medical schools to doctors. Of course, there was no research to back up this theory. It just sounded good. Now that stuttering has been studied with scientific research, we know that it has a physical cause... a difference in timing in the brain that you are born with. Yet to this day, many therapists still believe the old theory and treat stuttering like a psychological problem. My mother took me to a famous stuttering therapist when I was in high school who believed that psychotherapy would cure stuttering. She was also told by this expert that she was the cause of my stuttering according to the old theory. When people make things up without scientific research to prove their theories, they can actually do harm. Below is a recent research finding that further supports the physical cause of stuttering. New Research Links Genes to Stuttering Researchers have discovered the first genes linked to stuttering -- a complex of three mutated genes that may be responsible for one in every 11 stuttering cases, especially in people of Asian descent. The finding is important, because it shows that stuttering, which affects as many as 1 percent of adults worldwide, is biological in origin and not a result of poor parenting, emotional distress or other factors that many physicians have cited as causes. The new study of stuttering members of a large Pakistani family was led by geneticist Dennis Drayna at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and outlined recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.The takeaway message of this is stuttering is not a social or emotional disorder, Drayna said. It is not the fault of a bad parent, or unwilling child. It is a serious disorder and worthy of treatment. Keep in mind that these results are just a start in the investigation of the role of heredity related to genes responsible for stuttering. Only about 9% of the stutterers had the genes and the study was of only one large Pakistani family. Nevertheless, it is exciting to speculate that one day, there will be a real cure for stuttering based on changing the formation of genes in the body. Click Here to Request More Information Your Turn - Questions and Answers One of the major reasons for this newsletter is to stay in touch and be there for the people who stuttering who are interested in this type of program. Now is your chance to ask anything you want about stuttering, me, my clinic, or my therapy program. Just reply to this email with your questions. I will pick a few questions to answer next month in the newsletter. To your success! - Mark Recovered Stutterer Power Stuttering Center Click Here to Request More Information Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:55:08 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/stuttering_help/1UgXb/h/Power_Stuttering_Center_.htm Let's Talk Volume 1 Issue 2 February 2010 In This Issue: Stuttering Therapy Review Just Slow Down! Quick Links: About Mark Power Stuttering Information Stuttering Resources Stutter-Free Speech Program Basically, the program replaces your stuttered speech with a new way of talking which is incompatible with stuttering. You start this with a very slow rate of speaking during which you don't stutter from the first day of therapy. Gradually the rate is increased until it approximates normal speaking. At this point you are stutter-free in the clinic. The last part of the program is when you transfer this stutter-free speech into speaking situations outside the clinic and at home starting with very easy speaking situations and gradually moving to more difficult ones when you are ready. Read More > Stuttering Therapy Review Let's Talk about the different types of stuttering therapy that are available today. There are two approaches to stuttering therapy: Stuttering Modification and Fluency Shaping Stuttering Modification Therapy The goal here is to learn to stutter more easily. The therapist works with the stuttering blocks so that the patient uses less effort and changes the form of the stuttering. The patient is not taught to speak normally; rather he is taught to stutter in a more fluent, less abnormal manner. Stuttering modification was developed by Charles Van Riper in the 1930's. Fluency Shaping Therapy Where the goal of stuttering modification is to modify the moments of stuttering, the goal of fluency shaping therapy is the train stutter-free speech to replace the stuttering. The training is first done in the clinic and then transferred to the person's daily speaking environment. The Stutter-Free Speech Program was developed by Dr. George Shames and is a good example of fluency shaping therapy. Just Slow Down How many times have we heard helpful suggestions such as these: You just need to slow down and think about what you want to say. Take a deep breath before you say the word. Just relax! If these things worked we would have been stutter-free long ago! We tried them, and quickly found that they didn't work. Right? What works is to start out talking in therapy very slowly where you can't stuttering if you try and then gradually speed up over time until you're up to a normal speaking rate and stutter-free. We have a machine called the DAF (Delayed Auditory Feedback) machine that keeps your rate from going too fast too soon. When your stutter-free speech sounds natural, you start replacing the way you talked before with your new way of talking. You can't slow down from a fast rate - but you CAN speed up from a slow rate! Don't get me wrong - you can't just do this on your own. You need a trained therapist to guide you through the steps. But you can see how it can work. Right? Until next time... - Mark Power Recovered Stutterer Power Stuttering Center Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:31:17 -0400http://archive.aweber.com/stuttering_help/1LB1b/h/Power_Stuttering_Center_.htm Let's Talk Volume 1 Issue 1 January 2010 In This Issue: Mark Power Presents Hong Kong Workshop Facts About Stuttering Quick Links: About Mark Power Stuttering Information Stuttering Resources Stutter-Free Speech Program Basically, the program replaces your stuttered speech with a new way of talking which is incompatible with stuttering. You start this with a very slow rate of speaking during which you don't stutter from the first day of therapy. Gradually the rate is increased until it approximates normal speaking. At this point you are stutter-free in the clinic. The last part of the program is when you transfer this stutter-free speech into speaking situations outside the clinic and at home starting with very easy speaking situations and gradually moving to more difficult ones when you are ready. Read More > Happy New Year!! And welcome to the very first edition of the Power Stuttering Center Monthly Newsletter. I hope to provide you with valuable information about stuttering each month. Mark Goes to Hong Kong This month I was invited by the Widex Speech and Hearing Company to come to their Center in Hong Kong to train about 100 Speech Therapists in Stuttering Therapy. My full-day workshop trained these Chinese therapists in the Stutter-Free Speech Program. They will take what they learned to help children and adults in schools, hospitals and clinics all over Hong Kong. I am excited that these therapists will be able to help people who stutter in China. They were very grateful for the skills that they learned during the workshop. They also took me out for some delicious Chinese Dim Sum dinners. Facts About Stuttering Research scientists have discovered quite a few facts about stuttering. Marcel Wingate reported on the conditions the eliminate or reduce stuttering. See how many of these you have experienced.. Singing Talking in rhythm like a metronome Talking with an accent Whispering Shouting Delayed Auditory FeedbackNotice that ALL of these conditions have one thing in common. They change the way you talk. To get rid of stuttering you've got to simply change the way you talk. Not so simple is it? People have been telling you to slow down for years...it hasn't worked. You would do it if you could.. wouldn't you! What is needed is a systematic method to train you to speak in a way that is different from how you do while you are stuttering AND make it sound natural and pleasing to the listener so you will be glad to talk that way. This is exactly what the Stutter-Free Speech Program does. Over a five-day period you reconstruct your speech from the bottom up to end up with a different way of talking that sounds great. What about using this new way of speaking in the real world outside the clinic? We'll talk about that in our next issue of the newsletter. Stay tuned! Your Turn - Questions and Answers One of the major reasons for this newsletter is to stay in touch and be there for the people who stuttering who are interested in this type of program. Now is your chance ask anything you want about stuttering, me, my clinic, or my therapy program. Just reply to this email with your questions. I will pick a few questions to answer next month in the newsletter. To your success! - Mark Recovered Sutterer Power Stuttering Center Click Here to Request More Information Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:28:06 -0400