What is Stammer Time? (part 1)

I first reflected on the connection between stammering and time while sat in a basement with a school friend. I was trying to say something, but I couldn’t. My friend waited. I kept on trying to speak. The best I could manage, like so many times before, was to repeat the same syllable over and over again. I became aware of myself in that moment. It was as if I was on the outside looking in. Everything was in slow motion, but at the same time it was sped up. I felt like a passenger to my own experience.

I expect something similar has happened to everyone who stutters. It’s what’s referred to as “lived experience”. That phrase sounds like tautology but it isn’t, because the actual experience of stuttering is different to experiencing stuttering by reading about it, or to stuttering on purpose if you don’t usually stutter. I’ve learnt how to stutter on purpose on syllables which I wouldn’t otherwise have stuttered. Becoming comfortable doing so can be really helpful to stutterers. But it isn’t the same as actual stuttering.

I want to know what is happening when we stutter. Researchers call this the “moment of stuttering”, which is a good way to distinguish it from other important stuttering research areas like the anticipation of stuttering. For advocacy, I’m more fond of the phrase “Stammer Time”. It is funny, and funny is good. Laughing at stammering, which is different to laughing at people who stammer, is a great equaliser towards an experience which can be no fun at all.

The phrase “Stammer Time” might bring to mind this timeless mega-hit by MC Hammer:

It’s a great song. Consider the “break it down” section, when the Rick James “Super Freak” riff cuts out and there is dancing around in harem pants to a vaguely Arabesk backing. That mood is broken when Hammer calls out “Stop! Hammer Time!”. But perhaps the harem pants dancing mood itself is “Stammer Time”? And the rest of the song, with its exuberant refrain of “U Can’t Touch This”, represents the flow in our largely non-stuttered speech. Stammering could be like that for some people. It could even be like that for me. Sometimes, while I’m stammering, I’ll think of Hammer’s video and I feel happier about what is happening. Maybe I should get some harem pants.

Nevertheless, and despite its fierce appeal, the “U Can’t Touch This” vibe is not quite what occurred to me that time in the basement. In part 2 of this post, I’ll describe another way of thinking about Stammer Time.