Most stutterers do not stutter when speaking alone. Could this suggest that speech execution has been maladaptively conditioned in the presence of certain individuals? What are the strengths and challenges of this assertion?
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Most stutterers do not stutter when speaking alone. Could this suggest that speech execution has been maladaptively conditioned in the presence of certain individuals? What are the strengths and challenges of this assertion? https://preview.redd.it/rlhszu5u0z9e1.jpg?width=1126&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ccf2a350ccc48d35edcbc86dcb111ce09e809f97 What if I would not stutter for 1 hour if I speak alone, and when I switch to a social situation, - even thought I'm not consciously aware of any fear of stuttering -, yet I still seem to stutter? Could this perhaps at least partially imply the presence of conditioning of a "learned" maladaptive speech execution regulation? Additionally, research found that bilingual children exceeded the stuttering diagnostic norms used for monolingual English-speakers for both total and stuttering-like disfluencies (Rojas, Gusewski, Camacho, 2023). I argue that this may indicate that conditioning plays a significant role in developing a stutter disorder - in young bilingual children. Why? Here is my argument explained in an example. **What is your viewpoint on it?** Here is an example of a young bilingual child just prior to stuttering onset. He/She is being reprimanded or ignored for speaking foreign words, or he's having an abundance of word choices that create hesitation and prompt excessive regulation of speech execution. Over time, he may come to subconsciously perceive these hesitations or disfluencies as a strategy for gaining additional time to assemble unspoken words. Combined with the experience of speaking less (than peers), they may develop an interpretation that speaking less necessitates overcompensating through heightened regulation of speech execution. Constantly experiencing that his attempts to speak are being outpaced by listeners, in combination with frequently interrupted speech further reinforce hesitation and overregulation. Leading to creating a self-sustaining vicious circle where each component reinforces one another keeping the maladaptive regulation of speech execution alive. Refer to the screenshot I created, and also observe how there is no mention of 'fear of stuttering' which, I argue, challenges the mindset of many speech therapists who claim that if PWS do not consciously notice fear, then it cannot be conditioned. **Question**: Does the screenshot illustrate the conditioning involved in maladaptively (or poorly) regulating speech execution? What are the strengths and challenges of this assertion? https://preview.redd.it/cj70fyc71z9e1.jpg?width=967&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4c7204976774939300a14d5d453bde62331e5fa