Pausing Communication is a complex skill. Intellectual and physical, both components of speech require
coordination and effort. So, obviously you perform better when you give yourself sufficient time for
this effort through frequent pauses. Many of us labor under this false notion that communication means talking
non-stop! We think that a silence in a conversation must be an uncomfortable moment for both parties and will be considered a weakness on the part of the speaker. PWS often feel under pressure to prove themselves by talking continuously! Truth is just the other way around. Silence is an essential and natural part of good communication. People who talk non-stop are considered rude and poor conversation partners.Pause should be practiced consciously as meaningful breaks in the flow where: 1. a clause ends, signified by comma, colon etc. 2. a sentence ends, indicated by a full stop. 3. anew concept or thought is being introduced,often indicated by a hyphen, dash or a new paragraph etc. 4. a word expressing emotions (exclamation mark!) or question (?). 5. Ellipses (…) indicating unsaid thoughts. 6.Brackets [ ] or Parentheses ( ) indicating additional information. 7. you wish to give a few moments for the information to sink in. 8. you expect a response (verbal or non-verbal)from your audience. Listening attentively to your partner is equal important. Many PWS are so caught up in formulating their response that they hardly listen to their partner, leading to confusion and communication failure. The other person gets the impression that you are just not interested in what he or she has to share. Pausing should be unhurried, relaxed and can be used for taking deep breath,formulating our thoughts and reviewing audience response, especially during a formal presentation. Such conscious meaningful pauses help a pws by stopping his speech mechanism completely;
otherwise it tends to gather momentum and become uncontrollable after a couple of sentences,leading to moments of stuttering or a block eventually.
To practice pausing, 1. Begin with reading a newspaper or book, with full attention to punctuation as discussed above. 2. Stop completely and take a deep breath at every punctuation (comma, colon, semi-colon, full stop, hyphen etc.) - and then proceed further. 3. After regular practice for 2-4 weeks, practice conversation with a friend in a similar fashion: stop and breathe in gently wherever you think a punctuation mark should be, if you were writing it down. During the unhurried pause, maintain the eye contact, smile if appropriate, be aware of the time pressure but do not react to it. 4. Still later, practice it with a larger group and under different circumstances. While speaking in a formal setting, resist the time pressure. If you have been given only three minutes to present a long report- set up your priorities,leave out all the un- (or not so) important details and present only the most salient information in a relaxed way, interspersed with meaningful pauses. You may preface your presentation with something like this: Since I have just three minutes, I will share the most relevant information with you. To ensure understanding though, you may give hand out sat the end. The most important thing to remember is: during a pause your speech mechanism should really come to a stop and you should be completely relaxed. Your pause should not be like an idling engine on a red light. Here is a group exercise to develop power to resist time pressure, while speaking: Sit down with some
pea-nuts in the center, with members of your self help group. You have to ask a question from the
person sitting next to you (what is the color of your shirt? What is the day today? Are you not Rahul? Etc). That member must answer AFTER eating one pea-nut completely and then carry on asking the question from the next person and soon. Whoever forgets to eat the pea-nut before answering is out. Whoever lasts till the end could be titled 'King or Queen of Pausing'. This can be a fun game both for adults and children. (From 'Fifty Activities for the Children who stutter', by Dr Peter Reitzes.) Written By Sachin Srivastava
coordination and effort. So, obviously you perform better when you give yourself sufficient time for
this effort through frequent pauses. Many of us labor under this false notion that communication means talking
non-stop! We think that a silence in a conversation must be an uncomfortable moment for both parties and will be considered a weakness on the part of the speaker. PWS often feel under pressure to prove themselves by talking continuously! Truth is just the other way around. Silence is an essential and natural part of good communication. People who talk non-stop are considered rude and poor conversation partners.Pause should be practiced consciously as meaningful breaks in the flow where: 1. a clause ends, signified by comma, colon etc. 2. a sentence ends, indicated by a full stop. 3. anew concept or thought is being introduced,often indicated by a hyphen, dash or a new paragraph etc. 4. a word expressing emotions (exclamation mark!) or question (?). 5. Ellipses (…) indicating unsaid thoughts. 6.Brackets [ ] or Parentheses ( ) indicating additional information. 7. you wish to give a few moments for the information to sink in. 8. you expect a response (verbal or non-verbal)from your audience. Listening attentively to your partner is equal important. Many PWS are so caught up in formulating their response that they hardly listen to their partner, leading to confusion and communication failure. The other person gets the impression that you are just not interested in what he or she has to share. Pausing should be unhurried, relaxed and can be used for taking deep breath,formulating our thoughts and reviewing audience response, especially during a formal presentation. Such conscious meaningful pauses help a pws by stopping his speech mechanism completely;
otherwise it tends to gather momentum and become uncontrollable after a couple of sentences,leading to moments of stuttering or a block eventually.
To practice pausing, 1. Begin with reading a newspaper or book, with full attention to punctuation as discussed above. 2. Stop completely and take a deep breath at every punctuation (comma, colon, semi-colon, full stop, hyphen etc.) - and then proceed further. 3. After regular practice for 2-4 weeks, practice conversation with a friend in a similar fashion: stop and breathe in gently wherever you think a punctuation mark should be, if you were writing it down. During the unhurried pause, maintain the eye contact, smile if appropriate, be aware of the time pressure but do not react to it. 4. Still later, practice it with a larger group and under different circumstances. While speaking in a formal setting, resist the time pressure. If you have been given only three minutes to present a long report- set up your priorities,leave out all the un- (or not so) important details and present only the most salient information in a relaxed way, interspersed with meaningful pauses. You may preface your presentation with something like this: Since I have just three minutes, I will share the most relevant information with you. To ensure understanding though, you may give hand out sat the end. The most important thing to remember is: during a pause your speech mechanism should really come to a stop and you should be completely relaxed. Your pause should not be like an idling engine on a red light. Here is a group exercise to develop power to resist time pressure, while speaking: Sit down with some
pea-nuts in the center, with members of your self help group. You have to ask a question from the
person sitting next to you (what is the color of your shirt? What is the day today? Are you not Rahul? Etc). That member must answer AFTER eating one pea-nut completely and then carry on asking the question from the next person and soon. Whoever forgets to eat the pea-nut before answering is out. Whoever lasts till the end could be titled 'King or Queen of Pausing'. This can be a fun game both for adults and children. (From 'Fifty Activities for the Children who stutter', by Dr Peter Reitzes.) Written By Sachin Srivastava
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