This YT video explains secondary behaviors in stuttering: [part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LftpTGx0xhs), and [part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUgyXtdkW6E). I think that the traditional viewpoint of secondary behaviors include visible symptoms such as, head nodding, leg tapping, and fist clenching - specifically to get past a stutter. It would seem that there's a new shift in perspective among researchers currently, in that, anything that avoids the initial speech plan (aka motor program) could be considered a secondary characteristic, such as, word substitutions, repetitions, and fillers (such as, using the filler word "**words**"). In my opinion, even healthy interventions to get past a block - I consider secondary behaviors - such as, if we start breathing calmly mid-block, start relying on confident feelings or thoughts, or start reducing anxiety specifically to get past a stutter. I think that especially these secondary behaviors - that people who stutter often consider "healthy" - are actually making the stutter disorder worse, such that, we start believing that fast breathing, a lack of confidence, or encountering anxiety-inducing triggers can trigger or affect stuttering. In my opinion, it cannot trigger or affect stuttering unless we start believing in it, where are adopt a maladaptive response of relying on such demands and blame triggers - a natural process called [conditioning](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22classical+conditioning%22+%22stuttering%22). Lastly, I think that most PWS, family and friends of PWS, teachers, SLPs etc focus excessively on the negative feelings or domain-specific triggers (such as feared words), and therefore completely overlook domain-general triggers, and overlook all the other stimuli reinforcing such **conditioning**. Perhaps, a more effective approach could be to unlearn such **conditioning**, rather than finding "healthy" interventions