Counting needs to go. Full stop.

1. It tells you nothing about stuttering, for starters. Stuttering is much more than just the repetitions or blocks or prolongations.

2. Speech techniques should be about building more confident and effective speaking. Stopping to count a disfluency is the opposite of both these things. It’s like that WRONG buzzer going off. You want someone to fear a stutter even more? Keep doing this.

3. Most importantly, it is humiliating as a stutterer. It confirms our worst fear. Whether we’re the ones counting or someone else is, it is an acknowledgment that all everyone thinks about is our stutter. It teaches us no one cares what we say- they only care if we stutter.

It took me until my mid-20s to realize that last sentence wasn’t true. Most people care far more about the content of our speech than if we stutter or not.

People who stutter often already think PLENTY about their stutter. Let’s not draw more negative attention.

Comments on the original post:

Martha Speech (SLP): Yes!!! I love this post!

WeStutter (National Stuttering Association): We've also found letting go of tracking disfluencies is a fantastic way to build rapport and ease with people who stutter.

Julia (PWS): So true! I only had one therapist who did this and they didn’t last long. My family would do this a lot though and growing up I didn’t have a way to tell them that they shouldn’t. Definitely had a lasting negative affect on me for sure.