Puzzled about stuttering? If so, here is a book, written in clear, every-day language, that fits together the pieces of the stuttering puzzle as never before. The key to its approach is the Valsalva Hypothesis. This exciting new theory proposes that stuttering blocks may result from a neurological confusion between the voice and the Valsalva mechanism (which normally assists us in exerting effort and forcing things out of the body). The book demonstrates how physical and psychological factors may interact to stimulate and perpetuate stuttering through a “Valsalva-Stuttering Cycle.”
The book sheds new light on virtually every aspect of stuttering behavior, its causes, its paradoxes (e.g., why it’s worse in some instances but not others), and its many forms of treatment. Finally, it suggests an experimental self-therapy program, called Valsalva Control, aimed at controlling the Valsalva mechanism, breaking the stuttering cycle, and freeing the stutterer’s inherent fluency. [Source: Amazon.com]