2. PROBLEM/HYPOTHESIS
Many modern speech therapies have deficiencies, and no single technique works for
everyone suffering from disfluency. More often, speech therapists emphasize
physiological behaviors and techniques, while not fully confronting or understanding
a stutterer’s mental anxieties and personal experiences.
In contrast to current stuttering approaches, which often set unrealistic expectations
of perfection, strict guidelines, or focus on only one area for improvement, design
thinking examines a problem holistically and promotes experimentation.
Using design thinking’s human-centered observation, prototyping, and constant
refinement, a robust system of speech disfluency evaluation and experimentation
could be created to facilitate self-improvement and augment existing therapy.
4. 1: Introduction
1. State that I am a stutterer
2. Define Stuttering
3. Use statistics to show it is a significant problem
4. Discuss speech therapy in general
• no miracle cure, many methods/schools of thought, room for improvement
5. Mention a bit about design thinking
• the ways designers think in order to solve a problem
6. State the problem
7. State the hypothesis
5. 2: Stuttering and Speech Therapy
1. Three main types of Stuttering (repetition, prolongation, blocking)
2. How stuttering is generally evaluated
3. Stuttering Therapies and Treatment approaches in-depth
• General Categories (DAF, Fluency shaping, stuttering modification,
• Notable Therapies and approaches
• Limitations/critiques of specific and overall therapies/approaches
4. Therapy statistics (effectiveness, satisfaction, therapy vs. no therapy)
5. Stuttering and Society
• Cultural and social relevance
• Myths and stigmas that work against stutterers
Notes:
• Add in personal vignettes
• Incorporate research from interviews & discussions with stutterers and therapists
6. 3: Design Thinking
1. Define Design Thinking
2. Show an example from the design world that users may understand
3. Show that designers and stutterers have similar “issues” or variables that affect
how they operate or achieve success.
• Possible Example: John Harrison’s Hexagon & T-Shaped Persons
• “Stuttering can be more accurately understood as a system involving the entire
person” - John Harrison
7. 4: A new system based on design thinking
Define the basic idea of my new “system”
“I am not creating a new system of therapy. I am creating a method/system of
evaluation, experimentation, and discussion to help stutterers bring new insight to
their stuttering (and to themselves) in an exploratory, incremental way. Only YOU
(the stutter) really know every variable and nuance of how your stutter and its
effects. This new system will allow you to discover these observable variables and
use these insights to achieve your own goals.”
Through a new example, show how design thinking is the basis for this new system,
and how it would apply to stuttering.
Roger Martin:
Designer’s Personal Knowledge System (Stances, Tools, and Experiences)
Values validity and exploration. Rather than perpetuate the past, designer creates the future.
8. 4a: How the system could operate
1. Personal Stance/Beliefs
Be aware of your own decisions, and inquire about the beliefs and assumptions behind them. Be
ready to embrace the complexity that comes with evaluating your stuttering.
“Why am I afraid of the phone? Do I just dismiss it without reason, or is there something I can work
on there?”
2a. Observation
Observing subjects in action. For stuttering, video taping and posting situations (like phone calls)
enables immediate evaluation of my stuttering, as well as getting analysis from others. Look for
patterns/insight.
2b. Imagination
Based on the video taping, make an inference to why you are behaving certain ways (abductive
reasoning). This can’t be proved in advanced, only through exploration. You are asking if this may
be true.
“Do I make calls better after I exercise for 10 minutes? It seems like it...”
9. 4b: How the system could operate
2c. Test this inference.
Create a prototype/experiment and test your “hunch”. If necessary, refine it each time as you
begin to observe patterns. Can it be refined more?
2d. Configuration
Make the results of your inference into a repeatable activity that works for you, as well as fitting
into your current therapy or treatment.
3. Experiences
Master your tools, but don’t lose sight of originality in approaching new problems. While you
continue to practice your speech techniques, and may master them within the confines of certain
situations, you should be prepared to try new situations out and expand your knowledge base.
“I speak incredibly well when ordering from this familiar restaurant, but I really should try an
unfamiliar one sometime and see what happens.”
10. 5: Conclusion
Create a conclusive ending, as well as greater aspirations for future
implementation.
11. John Harrison
Harrison is a copywriter, scriptwriter, and a writer of corporate trainings and
books. He is also a gifted speaker, speechwriter and presentation coach, as
well as a “former” stutterer.
He wrote a 600-page book about it:
REDEFINING STUTTERING: What the struggle to speak is really all about
“You need a supportive environment where you can practice, experiment,
totally let go, and trust your inner self without fear of penalty.”
According to John Harrison' s Hexagon, stuttering is the by-product of six
Hexagon points: physiological responses, behaviors, beliefs, emotions,
beliefs, perceptions and intentions. Changing these elements of the
Hexagon will lead Changing these elements of the Hexagon will lead us
automatically away from stuttering.”
Harrison runs public speaking workshops through his “Speaking Freely”
organization in San Francisco, where individuals pay to practice their public
speaking skills with each other, using observation and refinement. Also
describes how to do this at home with your own groups. He has outlined
specific steps to accomplish this. He doesn’t believe in traditional therapy,
and doesn’t feel you should identify as a stutterer. Many stutterers find it
controversial (feels like self-help program).
