Hi there! Sorry to bother you, but I saw your speech-therapist addition to the stuttering-in-fanfic post, and I'm just curious- what category there does a mid-vowel stutter fall into? I didn't see it listed, and that's the problem I've always had, just sort of an unintentional hitch in the middle. (I did get speech therapy for it when I was younger, dw)
Hi!
The mid-vowel stutter is not one I’m super familiar with but it is listed as an Atypical Disfluency common in Developmental Stuttering (citation). Which means it’s most commonly seen in people who are developing a language skill (usually children).
The mid-vowel stutter you’re describing is a Mid-Vowel Insertion, it’s kind of like a mid-word hiccup. The brain stops to go, “Wait - is this the right word? Right. Okay.”
You would see this stutter in someone whose stumbling because their mouth hasn’t caught up with their brain, or who isn’t sure they’re using the right word.
It can also be an Acquired Stutter, something learned because of constant interruption or punishment, or after neurological trauma.
With speech therapy this is something that might go away, but you also might see a resurgence of it during a high-stress situation (the brain and mouth are out of synch again) or extreme emotions (liking too tired or excited).
I haven’t had any training to work with someone with this kind of stutter but I imagine something with a mid-vowel stutter would get the same advice as usually disfluency patients: take a deep breath, calm down, think about what you want to say, ground yourself, and practice reciting something if it’s important (like reciting a poem in class or the lines of a play).
If you wanted to write a character with this kind of stutter it wouldn’t need to be in every scene. It could be used as an emotional intensifier or as a reflection of language skills (the more comfortable they are with the language the less they stutter). But, as with anything of this nature, ask yourself why you’re writing it in and if you’re being respectful of the community this belongs to.
I hope that helps!
- Liana
Final Note: I’m not a licensed speech therapist. My experience comes from 18 years of parenting a child (now adult) with Auditory Processing Disorder, Speech Apraxia, and a stutter. And many, many hours spent in speech therapist’s offices learning how to help my children.
