Seeing this article about people finding it easier to learn foreign languages when the words are sung reminded me of the work I have done with stutterers.
It’s long been known that even people with the most pronounced stutter will often sing (shout and swear) and impersonate without a stutter but that normal conversation proves difficult. Why should this be?
Talking on the wrong side of the brain
It seems that singing, shouting and impersonating are all forms of communication that are processed by the right hemisphere of the brain. The right hemisphere deals with patterns but also negative emotions like fear, anxiety and depression. Normal language needs to be processed through the left hemisphere but if the stutterer learned to speak perhaps during times of high stress than they may have inadvertently learned to use the right hemisphere to try to ’speak through’ which results in a stutter. In deed we are all more likely to stutter when we are experiencing ‘negative’ emotions such as anxiety.
I have had success getting stammers to visualize the left side of their brains lighting up just before they are about to speak. Of course brain function isn’t this simplistic and it may be that this technique relies on placebo and distraction as much as anything else but I once saw this approach used to beautiful effect by one of our uncommon knowledge hypnotherapy diploma students A man with a terrible stammer was being seen as part of the students learning for the diploma course. The student ascertained that indeed the man could sing perfectly well. The student then briefly got the man to imagine singing with his right hemisphere then to hypnotically switch to left hemisphere operation-it was wonderful to see this man begin to say long sentences easily and fluently.
Hi Mark
This is very interesting.
How exactly do you teach a person to talk on the left side of the brain?
I have stuttered all my life from when I learned to speak and at the moment it ic currently getting worse. I also dont stutter when I sing and also when there is no one around (I can say anything for any amount of time no matter what state I am in).
Dan
Hi Dan
As I say I have had some success treating stuttering by (amongst other approaches) getting a person who stutters to really visualize the left hemisphere become active before they begin to speak.
The right side becomes more activated when we experience negative emotions like anxiety (which of course can be brought on by self consciousness). By emphasizing left brain activation the idea is to re-condition the correct part of the brain to do the talking if that makes sense.
We know the brain is ‘plastic’ which means that sometimes when one part is damaged another part can take over the functioning that the damaged part previously did. Because of this plasticity, i.e. that parts not originally meant to oversee a function can be ‘brought into play’ (like someone in an office who doesn’t normally answer the phone but does so when the secretary is off sick), then it may be that the part of the brain not really best suited to an activity-such as speaking-starts to oversee that activity-whereas the part of the brain best suited to that speaking gets temporarily side lined.
Mark
I write a blog about my adventures in stuttering. in all my years I have never heard the left -brain right brain function. Does one have to be hypnotized or is this something you can do on your own.
Hi Well when I have used this approach I tend to use hypnosis to motivate people to practice it, but certainly it can be done on one’s own and without hypnosis.
All the best
Mark