2003 IFA Congress: Montreal, Canada

A New Proposal for Therapy: The “Empty Pause”

Volker Urban
Helmstedter Str. 14,, D-38102 Braunschweig, Germany

SUMMARY

The “Empty Pause” is a new method which consists in having the stutterer interrupt or postpone his attempt to say a “critical” word until he feels that he will succeed in continuing fluently. In doing so he has to tolerate the growing fear of stuttering and has to resist an intense urge to start the speaking attempt right away. There is a proposed hypothesis that this urge plays a crucial role in the explanation of stuttering. It triggers the stuttering events by provoking an acceleration of the articulation or its preparation.
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