1. Catherine Christianson
Speech Disorders
Pseudo-Stuttering Extra Credit Assignment
1. I stuttered while ordering a drink at Starbucks this morning. Next to my gym, there is a
Starbucks, and it is always busy, so I thought it would be a suitable location for maximum
exposure during the event. I wanted to do it earlier in the morning, when I stopped at a TD bank,
but I couldn’t bring myself to do it!
2. I ended up using a prolongation, specifically a silent block. I actually intended to use a syllable
repetition SLD, however, that is not what actually came out of my mouth.
My target sentence was, “I’d like a large cup of water with two scoops of matcha powder.”
I actually said (with a stutter), “I’d like a __(silent block) __Cup of water….”
So I used a silent block before pronouncing the word “cup,” with a hard /k/ and did not stutter
again throughout the transaction.
3. The barista definitively noticed and proceeded to take my order in an “extra-nice” fashion. I
observed he politely smiled even more profusely than before and was almost nervously quick to
take the money from my hands to write the order on the large cup. It seemed as though he did not
know what to make of what just happened, and reacted in a nice but slightly-nervous fashion.
Even after leaving the café, I could not believe I did that. I felt embarrassed for making him feel
that way!
4. I learned that talking about stuttering in class or watching someone else stutter is very different
from knowing that you yourself are going to stutter in public, without the other person knowing
that you are pretending. I felt extremely nervous and anxiety-stricken. I had thought about what I
would say and what type of disfluency I would use beforehand as if ordering this drink was the
most important thing I’ve ever done. I was almost as nervous as I was for the presentation I gave
the other day or when I had a job interview a few weeks ago! It was an experience I will
remember.