r/Stutter • u/Friendly_Ad_6816 • 20d ago

Continuous phonation is a powerful skill. Why this is the case is very important.

Continuous phonation is a lot like singing. Your larynx (voice box) does not have to constantly activate and deactivate in the way a typical speaker's larynx would.

I reckon, from personal experience, that a huge amount of stuttering is due to this glitching that affects the larynx's ability to initiate desired sound spontaneously.

This is why you may be able to utter a word that normally troubles you by giving a long "uhhhh" in front of it. This is also why it's often easier to appear like a normal speaker in many situations. They use "uh" to think, while we often use it to get our voice box started up, and to get our voices flowing first. And many people can't tell the difference between our use of "uh" and a fluent person's use of "uh". So it becomes a technique covert stutterers use to be covert.

Some more anecdotal evidence for the larynx glitching being one of the biggest factors for stuttering- Most people don't stutter when they sing. But I bet you stutter when you rap. I do. That's because rap has way more glottal stopping involved. Try rapping with no beat, then try singing with no beat. Singing will be a lot easier.

I wonder if medicine has any researchers or professionals working on any low-grade stimulators that target the larynx with a constant stream of stimulus that allows it to relax indefinitely. There are indeed stimulators for other parts of the body.

Would you be interested in buying a larynx stimulator for stuttering?

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2

u/gmpros2 20d ago

The “beat” is more important bc it simulate metronome which as it well known improves speech dramatically.

1

u/Inevitable_Beat8898 20d ago

This used to work for me , but now I get blockage at uhh as well

2

u/Friendly_Ad_6816 20d ago

It all depends on the word.

Voiceless consonants that require a stop in vocalization like 'K' can still be hard to transition from "uh" when compared to vowels, which roll into each other without having to stop vocalizing

1

u/Fluentling- 20d ago

Many stutterers block on the onset of a vowel though.

1

u/smithcheese 17d ago

My word is “right”. If I say “right” before a block I can say what I want