Stuttering Analogies (318)

Bob Quesal

Robert Quesal joins Peter Reitzes to discuss analogies used to describe stuttering and stuttering treatment.

Today Bob and Peter discuss analogies that people use to describe the nature and treatment of stuttering. In many cases, we have no way of knowing the exact origin of  each analogy discussed because many are widely used and often similar in meaning. Bob and Peter begin by discussing the famous  stuttering iceberg analogyand proceed to discuss many, many more analogies listed below.

ROBERT W. QUESAL, Ph.D., CCC-SLP  is a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Western Illinois University, a person who stutters, a board recognized fluency specialist and a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Bob is also a much valued member of the StutterTalk advisory Council.

Listed below are links to articles, books or web pages which discuss some of the analogies mentioned in today’s episode. Please note that StutterTalk is not making a determination of where each analogy originated – we are simply providing some links to read about the analogies.

We discussed analogies posted at the StutterTalk Facebook group including:

  • Lisette Wesseling – the chocolate teapot and strict fluency shaping analogy
  • Mark Bulger – the man with a switch and stuttering analogy
  • Simon Richardson – “luency is as slippery as a dog in wet tile”
  • Ari Gershonovitch – stuttering and the broken transmission analogy
  • Steve Marchant – stuttering and the tangled extension cord
  • Elliot Olds – the “chinese finger trap, walking across a beam high above the ground (when it’d be trivial to walk across the same beam if it were on the ground), floating in the water on your back (once you start thinking you’re sinking, you start thrashing around which keeps you from floating)”
  • Voon Pang’s student – slowing down and the band aid analogy
  • Ruth Mead – stuttering, speech and the windmill analogy

We also discussed:

  • stuttering and taking an inventory in a burning house analogy (Quesal)
  • stuttering and being poked while writing analogy (Yaruss)
  • choosing a stuttering treatment similar to choosing a Mexican restaurant (Reitzes)
  • stuttering being like an onion (sent to StutterTalk by Rozie Matthews)
  • stuttering and pornography analogy
  • stuttering and weight loss analogy
  • pull outs as an emergency break