It's a simple idea that needs a robust and organised approach. After years of trying to speak fluency all the time, Geoff Johnston explains how to make voluntary stammering work for you.

Stuttering on purpose? You must be crazy. Would I ever do something that I've been trying to avoid all of my life!

Many of us have spent our lives trying very hard to be fluent, to NOT stutter! Has it worked for you? If yes, well done and good luck to you. However, I suspect for the rest of us, it has failed dismally! If this is true for you, please read on.

The old saying that "only a fool continues to do what one has always done and expects a different result" is true with our stuttering behaviour. If what you've been doing isn't moving you forward to your satisfaction, why not take a risk and do something different?

Voluntary stuttering MUST be done correctly with the following techniques. 1. The technique is to say the first sound of the word assertively then release all your air, pause for around two seconds, then take a big breath and say the entire word assertively. For example: By (P ... release ... pause ... big breath ...) practising this form of (V... release ... pause ... big breath ...) voluntary stuttering with a great smile on your face you show your listener that you're very much in control. 2. Another method of voluntary stuttering is called 'the slide' or 'long hit and hold'. This method involves ssssssssaying the first sound of a word and holding that sound for say wwwwun second and then fffffffffinish the word. It must be done assertively with 'attitude'. The success of voluntary stuttering is all about disclosing and demonstrating to your listener that YOU AREN'T a fluent speaker so then you can stop trying to be one.

Voluntary stuttering is not new. In fact it's been around since the early 1950's with Joseph Sheehan and Charles Van Riper. I put to you however, that the psychology behind it is still valid today. A good part of the reason we stutter is due to 'holding back' behaviour, being torn between the desire to express ourselves freely and the fear that if we try to do that we'll stutter and be perceived by others as abnormal, incompetent, disabled - whatever.

Denial and avoidance are the things that fuel and perpetuate the stuttering behaviour. The fear that we might stutter and make fools of ourselves is always there.

How then can we release ourselves from the fear of stuttering and look the world squarely in the eye rather than dropping our gaze and avoiding eye contact?

By doing the thing we most fear. By stuttering on purpose, the main difference is that we control the stutter rather than allowing it to control us!

Stuttering on purpose achieves a number of benefits including being in control of our speech and desensitising ourselves to the reactions of people when we do stutter.

Are you game enough to give it a go? If you are, I promise you it will be one of the bravest things you've ever done. The benefits though are enormous and will show you that controlling your fear and anxiety around speaking situations is achievable.

McGuirites world-wide via our email discussion group arrange several times a year to have a DD Day. People contract with each other to do 1,000 deliberate dysfluencies within a nominated 24 hour period. People who achieve the goal feel bullet-proof for weeks after!

So there it is... a short description of voluntary stuttering. Are you game enough to give it a go? And not just once or twice. Like any skill you need to practise it to be able to use it effectively.

Above all, choose to be in control and have some FUN with it!

Geoff Johnston is the regional director of The McGuire Programme in Australia.
Reprinted from the Australian Speak Easy Association's magazine Speaking Free.

From the Autumn 2006 edition of Speaking Out, page 14