The Valsalva Stuttering Network

If you are a person who stutters (stammers), do words sometimes feel like "brick walls," even before you try to say them? Do you repeat, prolong, or force on initial consonants? Do you sometimes choke on words that start with vowels?  Do your blocks get stronger the harder you try to break through them?

This website will propose a revolutionary new approach to understanding and alleviating these common stuttering behaviors, based on the author�s clinical experience with Valsalva Stuttering Therapy, involving the participation of more than one hundred persons who stutter from all over the world. It will show that the problem is not in saying consonants, but rather the neurological substitution of effort in place of phonation of the word�s vowel sound. This reaction may be triggered by the anticipation of difficulty or the urge to use effort to reduce anxiety.

The core of ordinary developmental stuttering is the unreadiness of the larynx to voice the vowel sound of a word or syllable.  This occurs because the larynx is neurologically prepared to participate in the exertion of physical effort (by performing effort closure as part of a Valsalva maneuver) rather than phonation.  The neurological programming for effort attaches to the vowel sound � probably because this is heart of the word or syllable and the part that has the most energy.  Consequently, the speech mechanism gets stuck on the consonant or glottal stop that precedes the vowel � repeating, prolonging, or forcing on it � resulting in the various behaviors called �stuttering.� 

Therefore, it might be said that stuttering (stammering) is best understood and treated as a specific kind of voice problem, rather than as a �fluency� problem or an articulation problem.  

Stuttering (or stammering), in its most common form, may involve the stutterer's instinctive activation of the body's Valsalva mechanism in an attempt to force out words when he or she anticipates difficulty or feels the need to use extra effort to speak properly.  This possibility has been generally ignored by speech therapists and is rarely addressed by current stuttering therapy.  Because persons who stutter aren't taught to control their Valsalva mechanism, many continue to have difficulty controlling their stuttering blocks and often relapse after therapy, without understanding why they are unable to stop stuttering.

The purpose of the Valsalva-Stuttering Network is to promote research and education about stuttering and the Valsalva mechanism and to develop effective stuttering therapies and techniques to reduce the Valsalva mechanism's interference with speech.

The Valsalva-Stuttering Network welcomes everyone who has an interest in stuttering and/or the Valsalva mechanism, including persons who stutter, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and other professionals, and researchers.

In addition to its possible involvement in stuttering, the Valsalva mechanism is also associated with blocking or "stuttering" in the playing of brass musical instruments, such as the trombone.  Therefore, the participation of brass musicians is also welcome.