Gentle onset and prolongation means that we pay close attention to the way we begin a word or a sentence. PWS often tense up, tighten their lips and jaw and start in a jerky uncontrolled fashion. With some practice and conscious attention, it is possible to start a sound gently. And then, prolong the sound. To beginner it may seem like speaking with a foreign accent. It involves prolonging the vowels, especially the initial sounds. It helps us to slow our speech down and be comfortable with the act of speaking itself. 1. To begin the practice, read a newspaper orbook with prolongation of vowels in every second word or more: As wee go too Kaaanpooor toooomorrow (I will go to Kanpurtomorrow). 2. Then, practice it with a friend in general discussion. To understand what does prolongation mean, you may have to talk to some PWS already practicing it or watch a video of the technique. The latter is available on web. 3. You begin with non-feared words and situations and VERY gradually move to fear words and situations over a period of some months (same as above for bouncing). For example you may talk like this to your pet dog and then gradually to your friends and family members for increasing durations. You may slide back once in a while, which is okay. But regular and motivated practice is very much needed to turn this technique into a useful skill,you can rely on. 4. Gentle onsets may even mean, to soft en the hard consonants at times: Khum on- leeet us plaaay (Come on- let us play). Similarly, sounds consisting of double consonants may have to be separated in the process of prolongation:Perroompt (Prompt); Currocin (Crocin), Burrave(Brave). 5. Initially speaking like this might seem very strange to us but if we observe, many nationalities speak English (and other languages) in significantly different ways and are understood well enough: Pay attention to Russian speaking in English, for example. Your colleagues will get used to it quiet soon. It definitely sounds no more stranger than your old way of stammering! Common Mistake: Many people short circuit the whole
process- by starting to bounce on difficult words, straight away in difficult situations like workplace, hoping to master the process in 2 day and finish the whole cycle in one week! Obvious result is- what starts as a bounce become uncontrolled stammering or block, soon; they lose all hope of mastering it ever and give it up Sometime, they get totally sold on a chance comment from a colleague and make a U-turn:yaar, your old way of talking was so much better-what is this new thing you have learned? sounds weird! Written By Sachin Srivastava
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