Secondary Behaviors of Stuttering: Core vs Secondary + Examples
The short answer: core behaviors are the stutter itself: repetitions, prolongations, and blocks. Secondary behaviors are everything people learn to do to escape or avoid those moments, like blinking, head nods, "um" starters, word switching, or skipping situations entirely. Secondary behaviors are learned, which means they can be unlearned.
Core behaviors of stuttering
| Core behavior | What it sounds like |
|---|---|
| Repetitions | "b-b-b-but," "ca-ca-can," "I-I-I think" |
| Prolongations | "sssssomething," "mmmmaybe" |
| Blocks | Silent stoppage: mouth set, no sound, often with tension. See stuttering blocks |
Secondary behaviors: two groups
Escape behaviors (getting out of a stuttering moment)
These happen during a stutter, when someone is trying to force the word out:
- Eye blinking, eye closing, looking away
- Head jerks or nods, jaw tension, facial grimaces
- Hand, arm, or foot movements: tapping, snapping, slapping
- Sudden pitch or loudness changes
- Gasping or speaking on residual air
Avoidance behaviors (preventing a stuttering moment)
These happen before a stutter, when someone anticipates one:
- Word switching: "water" instead of "coffee"
- Circumlocution: talking around a word
- Starters and fillers: "um," "well, like," "you know" to get a running start
- Postponing: pausing, pretending to think or forget
- Situation avoidance: skipping calls, not raising your hand, ordering what's easy to say
- Role avoidance: letting someone else speak for you
Why secondary behaviors develop
At some point a head nod or an "um" happened to coincide with a word coming out. The brain links them and repeats the behavior. Over time the trick stops working, but the habit stays, and new ones get added. That's why many adults have layers of secondary behaviors that started in childhood.
Avoidance follows the same loop. Each switched word brings short-term relief, which reinforces switching, and the list of feared words grows.
Why they matter
- They're often the most noticeable part of stuttering. Listeners react more to the struggle than to a quick, easy repetition.
- They're part of severity scoring. Tools like the Stuttering Severity Instrument score physical concomitants alongside frequency and duration. See stuttering severity explained.
- Avoidance shrinks your life. It also hides stuttering, which is part of what covert stuttering means.
How adults reduce secondary behaviors
- Identify them. Record yourself on video during a phone call or conversation and list every escape and avoidance behavior you notice. Many people are surprised.
- Stutter on purpose, easily. Voluntary stuttering on non-feared words lowers fear and shows you that you can stutter without struggle.
- Replace escape with a technique. Use a pull-out (release and ease out) or a cancellation (pause, then repeat the word easily) instead of forcing through.
- Stop switching, one word at a time. Pick one feared word and use it on purpose this week. See feared words practice.
- Drop the starters. Practice beginning sentences with a gentle onset instead of "um."
- Climb a situation ladder. Avoided situations go on the list too, from easiest to hardest.
This is the core of stuttering modification. An SLP can help a lot here, especially with older, deeply automatic habits. See how to find a speech-language pathologist for stuttering.
Practice
StutterLab's daily session includes technique reps, a feared-word drill, a short AI conversation, and one real-world avoided task, so you're replacing escape and avoidance habits every day. It's a practice program, not therapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are secondary behaviors in stuttering?
Secondary behaviors are learned reactions people develop to escape or avoid stuttering moments, like eye blinking, head jerks, foot tapping, filler words, word switching, or avoiding situations. They aren't the stutter itself; they build up over time because they sometimes seem to help.
What are the core behaviors of stuttering?
The three core behaviors are repetitions (sounds, syllables, or one-syllable words), prolongations (stretching a sound), and blocks (a stoppage where no sound comes out). They are the speech disruptions themselves.
Are secondary behaviors the same as secondary characteristics?
Yes. Secondary behaviors, secondary characteristics, accessory behaviors, and concomitant behaviors are used for the same idea. Formal severity tools score the physical ones as physical concomitants.
Can secondary behaviors be reduced?
Yes. Because they are learned, they can be unlearned. Identifying them, using techniques like cancellations and pull-outs instead, and reducing avoidance usually brings them down, often making stuttering look and feel milder overall.