DISFLUENCY CULTURE

This includes vocal stims and tics, stutters, stammers, stops, verbal paralysis, and all other speech impediments! Note: asks currently open, do not send anything 18+ as I am a minor

[disfluency-culture-is]

Hey guys and welcome to @/disfluency-culture-is! This entire blog is thanks to @lgbtqcultureis as they helped me decide to make it. Anyways!

Asks: currently open, and I’d appreciate it if you phrased your ask as “disfluency culture is…” Bonus points if you add your pronouns to the end, but that’s entirely optional! Thank you!

A disfluency disorder (which they call a fluency disorder), according to ASHA, is “an interruption in the flow of speaking characterized by atypical rate, rhythm, and disfluencies (e.g., repetitions of sounds, syllables, words, and phrases; sound prolongations; and blocks), which may also be accompanied by excessive tension, speaking avoidance, struggle behaviors, and secondary mannerisms (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], 1993). People with fluency disorders also frequently experience psychological, emotional, social, and functional impacts as a result of their communication disorder (Tichenor & Yaruss, 2019a).”

A little bit about the mod: I’m a minor, so NS*FW blogs dni, I use she/her primarily but I’m experimenting with he/him pronouns too. Personally I have a severe stutter that I’ve had for about 10 months now, so that’s what pushed me to make one for disfluencies. Feel free to either call me Mod or Lei

Don’t forget to check the notes if you want my personal comments!

Alright you’re good to start! Have fun guysssss

[disfluency-culture-is]

is disorganize speech due to mental illness/neurodivergence count disfluency? if so, culture is when having harder time with words, is translates to text, so even if not stutter because you are not talk out loud, still have trouble to make people understand you

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Absolutely! Being dis fluent means having more issues with your speech than the general population does, if that makes any sense.

[disfluency-culture-is]

Y’all know that “don’t write strong female characters, write strong male characters who happen to be female” mindset?? Yeah it’s amazing and the same goes with being disabled or non fluent. (Without rooting my own horn) I’d like to say I’m one of the better players in the band, and yet some people only refer to me as the “stuttering player”. I’m not the stuttering player, I’m 1st chair and one of the drum majors who happens to have a stutter. There’s a difference. If you don’t have any kind of disability I’m sure it’s difficult to understand, but don’t define those with disabilities as “oh this is my disabled friend” or “how about you go ask the drum major?” “Which one?” “The stuttering one”. It’s degrading.

[disfluency-culture-is]

Uh,, i hope this is an okay thing to ask because i don’t want to like make you stressed. But i saw this blog and realized that maybe i might have something like disfluency?

If i’m not talking really slowly and planning out words, my words and sounds tend to slur together and i mix around the sounds of words a lot. Would that fit into disfluency?

Awww anon first off you don’t need to apologize for stressing me. You’re not. I really enjoy being able to help people even in small ways. As for your question, disfluency is not a very well-researched topic, so a lot of us are playing it by ear. If you feel like some of the things said here resonate with you, then let them! It seems like you might have a bit of a lisp, which is typically more voice-centered than fluency-centered. Lisps are common if you have any other mental or physical issues, so if you want to, I’d 100% recommend you ask your doctor about it the next time you see them. Is this a good enough answer?

[mostauspiciousmanner]

We need to normalise Tourette’s and tic disorders without romanticising them. You know what I mean?

Like yes we need more representation and whatnot, but not when we’re the butt of the joke. We need characters that tic, but not turn it into some ‘quirky’ or ‘cute’ attribute. Sure, it can be fine to joke about it if they’ve given explicit consent, but there’s also the reality of it that it’s a disability.

Some days I physically cannot read, which is something I love to do. I jerk my head so much that I can’t read anything off the board in class. After frustrating minutes of trying to suppress tics I have to slam shut my laptop because I physically can’t stare at screen long enough to type. Bruised hands from slamming into tables, or headaches from hitting walls. It takes me more times than I like to admit to get through a single sentence because I keep interrupting myself. At the end of the day my throat is so hoarse from the vocal tics people have called ‘cute’ or ‘funny.’

Not to mention the weird looks, the mocking, the stares, the embarrassment and shame. Having to explain again and again it’s something you can’t control.

A lot of the disabled characters in media are used as inspiration porn. “Oh what a pity they’re disabled but look what they can accomplish with some determination!!” I don’t see myself as a straight A student, musician and artist despite my disability, I’m simply a straight A student, musician and artist who just so happens to have a disability. I am not separated from it, and it’s not something I am completely defined by. My interests and achievements are not tied with my condition at all, they’re something that I as my own person have had to work for, tics or not.

So yeah in short, you can have positive rep, but you can’t always make light of it. It’s something that we’re not defined by, but we’re not separated by it. So many horrible things come from it, but we as humans learn to grow and adapt from it.

[disfluency-culture-is]

Ticcing, stammering, and lisp culture is being told that they're not very noticeable or "cute" and feeling like your problems have been reduced to a little "quirk" of yours.

I’m not even gonna try to put this in the tags. Guys, I shouldn’t need to say this, but your disfluencies are perfectly valid and so are you. You an autistic adult with vocal tics? That doesn’t make you ANY less of an adult. You a teen with a stutter? You deserve the ABSOLUTE same love as your friends. Do you have tourette’s? Well guess what, your tics aren’t cute or funny, they’re serious matters that demand respect. Your speech does NOT define who you are. You define who you are, the question is if you want to keep going even with whatever hinderance you have. You are seen, you are valid, and you don’t need to calm down.

[disfluency-culture-is]

Disfluency culture is hating how audio records seem to pick up and showcase your "speech problems" tenfold and especially hating how that increases the internalized shit you have

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[disfluency-culture-is]

Stuttering culture is having patient friends :)

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[disfluency-culture-is]

disfluency culture is repeating a word six different times while your friends who share the same thing teasingly encourage you and you all overdramatically celebrate when you get it right

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[disfluency-culture-is]

Disfluency culture is only being able to say, "Did I stutter?" online because you probably would've stuttered if you said it out loud.

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[disfluency-culture-is]

Disfluency culture is stressing about people talking to you unexpectedly because you know you'll stutter since you haven't had time to mentally prepare, which makes you stutter more because you're stressed which makes you stress more which makes you stutter more whi-

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[disfluency-culture-is]

adhd disfluency culture is sometimes dumping so much info bc you can’t stop talking, and sometimes bluescreening on words and barely being able to carry a conversation.

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[disfluency-culture-is]

Disfluency culture is finding this blog and realizing that this is actually a thing?? And I'm not the only one who does it?? That's a relief.

Fam when I tell you I was like “oh my god I can make one for me???” The moment?? Immaculate

[disfluency-culture-is]

disfluency culture is hating the letters l and r when they are near each othee

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[disfluency-culture-is]

disfluency culture is getting stuck on and repeating a word over and over again until you can force yourself to stop, and then having to start the sentence over again

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[disfluency-culture-is]

disfluency culture is having an episode and suddenly the only thing you can say in response to questions "i dont know, i dont know" and everyone who doesnt know whats going on is like "hahaha can you say anything ELSE?" and youre just sitting here like "...............i dont know"

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[disfluency-culture-is]

Disfluent trans culture is having a really hard time picking a name cause you are unable to say half of the names you really like

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