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stuttering

 

Definition

Stuttering is a speech problem characterized by repetitions, pauses, or drawn out syllables, words, and phrases. Stutterers are different than people experiencing normal fluency problems because a stutterer's disfluency is more severe and consistent than that of people who do not stutter.

Description

Normal language development in a child can include a period of disfluency. Children might repeat syllables or words once or twice. Sometimes, children experiencing normal disfluencies hesitate during speech or use fillers, including "um, " with frequency. These developmental problems usually happen between one and five years of age. Often, parents are concerned about the disfluency they hear in their children. In fact, about 25% of all children experience speech disfluencies during development concern their parents because of their severity.

A child with mild stuttering, however, will repeat sounds more than twice. Parents and teachers often notice the child's facial muscles become tense and he or she might struggle to speak. The child's voice pitch might rise with repetitions, and some children experience occasional periods when airflow or voice stops for seconds at a time. Children with more severe stuttering stutter through more than 10% of their speech. This child exhibits considerable tension and tries to avoid stuttering by using different words. In these children, complete blocks of speech are more common than repetitions or prolongations, during which children lengthen syllables or words.

Stuttering usually begins in childhood when the child is developing language skills, and it rarely develops in adulthood with only 1% of the population affected by the disorder. Stuttering does not affect intelligence. Teens often experience more noticeable problems with stuttering as they enter the dating scene and increase their social interactions. Stuttering can severely affect one's life. Often, adults who are concerned about stuttering choose their careers based on the disability.

The degree of stuttering is often inconsistent. Stutterers can be fluent in some situations. Many find that they stop stuttering when singing or doing other activities involving speech. Some have good and bad days when it comes to stuttering. On good days, a stutterer might be able to talk fluently using words that usually cause him to repeat, pause or prolongate sounds, syllables, parts of words, entire words or phrases.

— Lisette Hilton



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Dictionary: Stut·ter·ing
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n.

The act of one who stutters; -- restricted by some physiologists to defective speech due to inability to form the proper sounds, the breathing being normal, as distinguished from stammering.

Stut·ter·ing
a.

Apt to stutter; hesitating; stammering. -- Stut·ter·ing·ly, adv.



Speech defect affecting the rhythm and fluency of speech, with involuntary repetition of sounds or syllables and intermittent blocking or prolongation of sounds, syllables, and words. Stutterers consistently have trouble with words starting with consonants, first words in sentences, and multisyllable words. Stuttering has a psychological, not a physiological, basis, tending to appear in children pressured to speak fluently in public. In earlier times, stutterers were subjected to often torturous efforts to cure them. Today it is known that about 80% recover without treatment, usually by early adulthood. This probably results from increased self-esteem, acceptance of the problem, and consequent relaxation. See also speech therapy.

For more information on stuttering, visit Britannica.com.

Neurological Disorder:

Stuttering

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Definition

Stuttering has no absolute definition that encompasses all the aspects of the disorder. In general, it is a condition in which a person trying to speak has difficulty in expressing words normally. Morphemes (actual individual sounds such as "mm" or the explosive "p") are not easily articulated. Two common symptoms of stuttering are the drawing out of the morpheme as in "mmmmmore" or the repetitious "l-l-l-look" of seemingly simple words.

Stuttering is not to be confused with another speech disorder called cluttering. Cluttering has a much more definitive cause and clearer symptoms. Its neurogenic link has been more thoroughly established, while the roots of stuttering have not. Cluttering involves a rapid speech pattern, while stuttering can take on a variety of levels of complexity.

Description

In the past, researchers and speech therapists assumed that stuttering was a developmental disorder. Increasing evidence points to a genetic cause in many patients, especially males. The results are far from clear and studies are conflicting in their data and conclusions. Many studies are focused on the fact that monozygotic (one egg) twins both seem to stutter when the disorder is present.

Stuttering is usually identified in children. Unless the situation is extremely stressful, such as speaking in front of a large group of people, or an equally distressing condition is present, very few adults begin to stutter later in life. Stress and anxiety about the inability to easily express thoughts and words is very distressing for the child who stutters and can prolong recovery or even prevent it.

The social anxiety accompanying stuttering is one of the reasons researchers have historically cited the lack of emotional well-being or the production of high anxiety as the root cause of the disorder. While at an early age, when peer pressure and social acceptance is extraordinarily important, the lack of understanding by other children can be very difficult to overcome. At this point, stuttering does become an emotional as well as physical challenge.

Demographics

More than 1% of the population stutters. However, if every person who has, at some time, found themselves stuttering when anxious were included, the condition would be considered a great deal more common. Males are four times more likely than females to stutter. Stuttering is also more common in children than adults.

The Stuttering Foundation of America has provided facts on who is likely to stutter. They describe four of the most common factors that lead to stuttering. The first is genetics. Clinical results indicate that around 60% of those who stutter have a family member who also stutters. A second possible cause for stuttering involves developmental delays. Researchers claim that children with other speech and language problems are more likely to stutter than those who do not.

The third proposed reason for stuttering involves the physiology of the brain. With magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other such examinations, it appears that some people process speech and language in different regions of the brain than those who do not stutter. Early language acquisition occurs in the Broca's area of the brain, but this ability lasts only for a short time during childhood. After initial speech is acquired, language is learned in other regions of the brain. This may have an influence on those who stutter.

Finally, family dynamics are implicated as reasons for stuttering. Parents with high expectations and little patience may push a child to speak before he or she is ready. Without proper education, some parents may push their children to achieve certain goals by a particular age. If the goal is not, met a child may experience anxiety and it is possible this could result in stuttering.

Causes and symptoms

The actual physiological cause of stuttering is not conclusive.

Neurogenic stutterers are those people who have developed the disorder as a result of some sort of head injury or trauma. Their speech may be repetitious, prolonged, and they may even experience a mental block on certain words or phrases. However, they seem to lack the fears and anxieties of those who are designated as developmental stutterers. The severity of neurogenic stuttering is directly correlated with the degree of brain injury and degree of healing.

Diagnosis

A health professional or speech therapist trained in identifying varying speech disorders makes the diagnosis of stuttering. Stuttering must be isolated from anxious stammering, brain-related cluttering, and a variety of additional speech disorders.

Treatment team

The treatment team for a stutterer is multidisciplinary. Initially, a child's parent or teacher may identify a problem in communication and reading aloud. The pediatrician usually identifies and makes the diagnosis of stuttering as opposed to other vocal disturbances. A neurological consultation may be sought. Occurrences such as head trauma or lesions of the brain must be ruled out as a contributing factor.

Many speech and language pathologists have been trained and licensed to work with stutterers. They can provide exercises, vocal awareness, and support that the stutterer needs to begin a path to recovery. Many schools offer these types of support and are free to the students.

One of the best teams for the treatment of stuttering is the family and friends of the person who stutters. It is likely the stutterer feels embarrassment or guilt over the condition. Family and friends who take the time to understand the condition and show their patience and acceptance can help the person who stutters. Reading books about the condition and aiding in home therapies is a proven method of making the stutterer feel less shame and embarrassment. In turn, the benefits of therapy can be reached more quickly.

Treatment

Most clinicians recommend a holistic approach in which patients are allowed to find their own most useful therapy. A good rapport should exist between the speech therapist and patient.

Significantly, often when the person who stutters focuses on a related task such as singing, the individual fails to show any symptoms. When a prescribed set of words and additional distraction are employed, it appears the stutterer has fewer problems speaking clearly. Singing and rhyming are strategies used by speech therapists as confidence boosters to illustrate that the person has the ability to express language in a natural, easily flowing manner.

Recently, some electrical devices for the treatment of stuttering have come onto the market, but their success is still not well documented. The Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) and Frequency-Shifting Auditory Feedback (FAF) are electronic devices that pick up a voice from a microphone, delay the sound for a fraction of a second, and feed the voice back through earphones. Some clinicians claim the feedback machines can significantly reduce or eliminate stuttering.

Recovery and rehabilitation

Recovery from stuttering is unpredictable for several reasons. Many people must come to the aid of the stutterer. Family and friends, the therapist, schoolmates, and a variety of additional environmental conditions must be in place for the stutterer to gain control over the disorder. If all is in place, the chance of significant improvement is excellent.

Clinical trials

As of early 2004, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke were sponsoring several clinical trials on the nature and treatment of stuttering. Information about the studies can be found at the National Institutes of Health clinical trials website: .

Prognosis

The prognosis for people who stutter can be very good. The American Society of Stuttering lists some famous people who stutter and have proceeded to make careers in which their voice is an asset. The list includes James Earl Jones, Mel Tillis, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Carly Simon, and many more celebrities who make their living by announcing, acting, or singing.

Special concerns

Many childhood stutterers are not receiving adequate treatment because of poverty or financially stretched school resources. The American Institute for Stuttering offers information on seeking financial resources for the treatment of stuttering, training of professionals to treat those who stutter, and additional information about stuttering.

Resources

BOOKS

Guitar, Barry, and Theodore Peters. Stuttering: An Integrated Approach to Its Nature and Treatment, 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1998.

Kehoe, Thomas. Multifactoral Stuttering Therapy: A Guide for Persons Who Stutter, Parents, and Speech-Language Pathologists. Boulder, CO: Casa Futura Technologies, 2002.

Logan, Robert. The Three Dimensions of Stuttering: Neurology, Behavior, and Emotion. London: Whurr Publishers, 1998.

OTHER

"How to React When Speaking with Someone Who Stutters." Stuttering Foundation of America. April 4, 2004 (June 3, 2004). http://www.stutteringhelp.org/DeskLeftDefault.aspx?TabID=153

"Stuttering." University of Maryland Medicine. April 4, 2004 (June 3, 2004). http://www.umm.edu/ent/stutter.htm.

ORGANIZATIONS

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. (301) 897-5700 or (800) 638-8255; (301) 571-0457. actioncenter@asha.org. http://www.nsastutter.org.

National Stuttering Association. 471 East La Palma Avenue, Suite A, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807. (714) 693-7480 or (800) 364-1677; (714) 630-7707. nsastutter@asha.org. http://www.nsastutter.org.


Brook Ellen Hall, PhD


World of the Body: stuttering
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Stuttering (or stammering, as it is often called in Britain) is probably the best known and most researched speech disorder, but perhaps the most difficult to define, to explain, and to treat, especially in adults. Both names are onomatopoeic: the essential features of stuttering are frequent repetitions and prolongations of sound or syllables. Other problems of fluency may also characterize stuttering, including blocking of sounds or interjection of words or sounds. However, the sudden sensation of a loss of control over the ability to produce an utterance distinguishes stuttering from other forms of unfluent speech. Another characteristic of stutterers, especially adults, is their avoidance of anticipated problem words and situations, in order to cope with the problem.

Chronic stuttering usually begins in early childhood (development stuttering), although occasionally the disorder starts in adulthood (acquired stuttering), usually as a result of brain damage. Stuttering seems to occur in all nationalities with a prevalence of approximately 1% and an incidence of 4% to 5%. Approximately 40% to 80% of children with the disorder recover, for various reasons, by the time they reach adolescence or adulthood. More males than females stutter: the ratio of males to female stutterers ranges from 2-3: 1 in childhood, up to 4-5: 1 by adulthood. The incidence of the disorder is much higher among other members of the family of a stutterer than in the general population: in other words, there is probably a genetic factor in this condition.

Stuttering may vary greatly in its frequency and severity in different situations. It is, for instance, dramatically reduced when speaking alone or reading aloud in chorus with an accompanist. Wearing headphones that alter the feedback of one's own voice can also reduce stuttering, and so too can the use of certain regular speech patterns (e.g. singing, unusual accents, speaking in rhythm). The reliability with which such techniques for inducing fluency can reduce or even abolish stuttering is considered a key to understanding the disorder — they also form the basis of some treatments.

The social and vocational effects of chronic stuttering may be quite devastating, perhaps because of the suspicion that it is the outward sign of a personality disorder. However, there is remarkably little evidence that stuttering is related to any unusual personality characteristics or neuroses; and there is little support for the claim that stuttering is associated with anxiety. Many prominent individuals, including well-known actors and politicians, have managed to control their stuttering and achieve successful careers. Nevertheless, the handicapping effects of the disorder in children and adults are undeniable.

There is currently no accepted theory that offers a satisfactory explanation for all the features of stuttering. At different times, psychoanalytic or organic theories have held sway over research and/or therapy. Traditional, formal learning has been blamed; so too have errors in control systems in the brain. Most current researchers consider developmental stuttering to be a disorder of motor control, with strong genetic underpinnings, influenced by environmental factors. This position has gained support with evidence that signs of severe stuttering may appear almost as soon as a child starts to produce connected speech.

Recent studies of right-handed adult stutterers, using techniques for imaging activity in the brain, have revealed unusual patterns of activation and inhibition during stuttered speech, particularly in parts of the right hemisphere involved in hearing and the control of movement, and especially exaggerated in the cerebellum. The unusual activity in these regions, which appears to occur only during speech, is very different when stuttering is reduced or absent as a result of strategies for improving fluency. These findings have intensified the search for a neurological system or systems that might be specifically related to stuttering.

The treatment of stuttering is an area of controversy. There is no evidence that any drug treatment is effective in removing stuttering in children or adults. The most convincing effects have been reported for behavioural treatments, although there is much debate about the evaluation of such therapy. Other forms of treatment emphasize learning to adjust to the disorder rather than removing the problematic behaviour.

Probably the most dramatic change to therapy for stuttering in the last decade is the use of mild verbal corrections for each occasion of stuttering, and verbal praise for periods of fluency, which has beneficial effects in treating young children. Recovery commonly occurs without treatment in the first year after onset, but this becomes less likely without intervention if the disorder persists. Indeed, there is an urgent need to correct the widely-held belief that children will recover from stuttering if their problem is merely ignored. Currently, the preferred therapies for older stutterers involve a combination of behavioural techniques and methods for training speech-motor strategies. However, there is no convincing evidence that these therapies result in complete recovery.

The most successful therapeutic approaches for adults and children involve three general features: first, a method that establishes reduced stuttering or stutter-free speech under relatively controlled conditions; then a procedure for transferring that improvement beyond the treatment setting; and finally, strategies for maintaining that improvement. The most favoured techniques for establishing control over stuttering fall into three categories: behavioural methods based on rewarding performance; teaching stutterers to prolong their speech; and mechanical aids. These techniques are also often used in conjunction with control of the rate of speaking. Once improvement has been produced in the controlled conditions, ‘transfer’ procedures are used, which systematically introduce increasingly demanding speaking situations. The most successful maintenance procedures require intermittent management over periods lasting up to two or three years. Given the variability of stuttering across situations, over time, and with relatively slight alterations to the manner of speech production, stuttering therapy evaluation presents considerable challenges, which are now occupying the attention of clinical researchers.

— Roger J. Ingham

Bibliography

  • Bloodstein, O. (1995). A handbook on stuttering. Singular, San Diego, CA.
  • Fox, P. T., Ingham, R. J., Ingham, J. C., et al. (1996). A PET study of the neural systems of stuttering. Nature, 382, 158-62
Thesaurus: stuttering
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noun

    A speech impediment marked by involuntary repetitions and pauses: stammer, stammering, stutter. See words.

Dental Dictionary: stuttering
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n

A speech dysfunction characterized by spasmodic enunciation of words, involving excessive hesitations, stumbling, repetition of the same syllables, and prolongation of sounds.

Definition

Stuttering is a speech problem characterized by repetitions; pauses; or drawn-out syllables, words, and phrases. Stutterers are different than people experiencing normal fluency problems because a stutterer's disfluency is more severe and consistent than that of people who do not stutter.

Description

Normal language development in a child usually includes a period of disfluency. Children might repeat syllables or words once or twice. Sometimes, children experiencing normal disfluencies hesitate during speech or use fillers, including "um," with frequency. These developmental problems usually happen between one and five years of age. Often, parents are concerned about the disfluency they hear in their children.

A child with mild stuttering, however, will repeat sounds more than twice. Parents and teachers often notice the child's facial muscles become tense and he or she might struggle to speak. The child's voice pitch might rise with repetitions, and some children experience occasional periods when airflow or voice stops for seconds at a time. Children with more severe stuttering stutter through more than 10 percent of their speech. This child exhibits considerable tension and tries to avoid stuttering by using different words. In these children, complete blocks of speech are more common than repetitions or prolongations, during which children lengthen syllables or words.

Stuttering does not affect intelligence. Teens often experience more noticeable problems with stuttering as they enter the dating scene and increase their social interactions. Stuttering can severely affect one's life. Often, adults who are concerned about stuttering choose their careers based on the disability.

The degree of stuttering is often inconsistent. Stutterers can be fluent in some situations. Many find that they stop stuttering when singing or doing other activities involving speech. Some have good and bad days when it comes to stuttering. On good days, a stutterer might be able to talk fluently using words that usually cause him to repeat, pause or prolong sounds, syllables, parts of words, entire words, or phrases.

Demographics

More than 3 million Americans stutter and four times more males are affected than females. Stuttering usually begins in childhood when the child is developing language skills, and it rarely develops in adulthood with only 1 percent of the population affected by the disorder. Approximately 25 percent of all children experience speech disfluencies during development that concern their parents because of their severity.

Causes and Symptoms

There is no known cause of stuttering. Some believe that it has a physical cause and that it might be related to a breakdown in the neurological system. Stuttering starts early in life and often is inherited. Brain scan research has revealed that there might be abnormalities in the brains of stutterers, while they are stuttering. Myths about why stuttering occurs abound. Some cultures believe that stuttering is caused by emotional problems, tickling an infant too much, or because a mother ate improperly during breastfeeding. None has been proven to be true. It is believed that some drugs might induce stuttering-like conditions. These include antidepressants, antihistamines, tranquilizers, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

When to Call the Doctor

The child's doctor should be contacted if parents have concerns about the speech patterns of their child. The doctor may refer parents to a speech-language specialist for evaluation if needed.

Diagnosis

Speech and language therapists diagnose stuttering by asking stutterers to read out loud, pronounce specific words, and talk. Some also order hearing tests. The tests will determine whether a person needs speech therapy.

Treatment

As of 2004, researchers did not understand what causes stuttering. However, progress has been made regarding what contributes to the development of the disability; therefore, in some cases it can be prevented in childhood with the help of therapy early on. Therapy can help people of all ages suffering from the speech disability. While not an overnight cure, therapy can offer positive results and more fluent speech patterns. The goals of therapy are for the stutterer to reduce stuttering frequency, decrease the tension and struggle of stuttering, become educated about stuttering, and learn effective communications skills, such as making eye contact, to further enhance speech. The therapy focuses on helping stutterers to discover easier and different ways of producing sounds and expressing thoughts. The success of therapy depends largely on the stutterer's willingness to work at getting better.

The duration of stuttering therapy needed varies among stutterers. Sometimes, stutterers find intermittent therapy useful throughout their lives.

Parents, teachers and others can help ease stuttering. These include: talking slowly, but normally, clearly, and in a relaxed manner to a stutterer; answering questions after a pause to encourage a relaxed transaction; trying not to make stuttering worse by getting annoyed by a person's stuttering; giving stutterers reassurance about their stuttering; and encourage the stutterer to talk about his or her stuttering.

Electronic fluency aids help some stutterers when used as an adjunct to therapy. Medications, such as antipsychotics and neuroleptics, have been used to treat stuttering with limited success.

Some people use relaxation techniques to help their stuttering.

Prognosis

As of the early 2000s no answers had been found to explain the causes of stuttering; still, much has been learned about what contributes to stuttering's development and how to prevent it in children. People who stutter can get better through therapy. Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Carly Simon, James Earl Jones, and King George VI were childhood stutterers who went on to live successful professional lives.

Prevention

The location of some genes appears to predispose people to stuttering. While genetic factors do not explain all stuttering, genetics may help to uncover the disability's causes. Speech therapy, especially that performed at a young age, can stop the progression of stuttering.

Parental Concerns

Many children experience brief episodes of stuttering. In many cases, these are transitory and disappear without treatment. Parents should be aware that some stuttering is quite normal when a child feels under pressure to talk. Thus, parents should wait to allow the child to communicate at his or her own speed, and not pressure the child to talk or make fun of the stutter.

Resources

Books

Boethe, Anne K. Evidence-Based Treatment of Stuttering: Empirical Bases, Clinical Applications, and Remaining Needs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.

Hulit, Lloyd M. Straight Talk on Stuttering: Information, Encouragement, and Counsel for Stutterers, Caregivers, and Speech-Language Clinicians. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 2004.

Kent, Susan. Let's Talk about Stuttering. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2003.

Ramig, Peter R., and Darrell Dodge. The Child and Adolescent Stuttering Treatment and Activity Resource Guide. Albany, NY: Delmar, 2005.

Periodicals

Altholz, S., and M. Golensky. "Counseling, support, and advocacy for clients who stutter." Health and Social Work 29, no. 3 (2004): 197–205.

Maguire, G. A., et al. "Alleviating stuttering with pharmacological interventions." Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy 5, no. 7 (2004): 1565–71.

Messenger, M., et al. "Social anxiety in stuttering: measuring negative social expectancies." Journal of Fluency Disorders 29, no. 3 (2004): 201–12.

Michel, V., et al. "Stuttering or reflex seizure?" Epileptic Disorders 6, no. 3 (2004): 193–215.

Viswanath, N., et al. "Evidence for a major gene influence on persistent developmental stuttering." Human Biology 76, no. 3 (2004): 401–12.

Organizations

American Academy of Audiology. 8300 Greensboro Dr., Suite 750, McLean, VA 22102. Web site: www.audiology.org/.

American Speech-Language Hearing Association. 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Web site: www.asha.org/.

Web Sites

"Stuttering." National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, May 2002. Available online at www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/stutter.asp (accessed January 9, 2005).

"Stuttering." National Library if Medicine. Available online at www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/stuttering.html (accessed January 9, 2005).

"Stuttering Information." Stuttering Foundation of America. Available online at www.stutteringhelp.org/ (accessed January 9, 2005).

"Stuttering Support." The National Center For Stuttering. Available online at www.stuttering.com/(accessed January 9, 2005)..

"Stuttering Support." The National Stuttering Association. Available online at www.nsastutter.org/ (accessed January 9, 2005).

[Article by: L. Fleming Fallon, Jr., MD, DrPH]



 
Columbia Encyclopedia: stuttering
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stuttering or stammering, speech disorder marked by hesitation and inability to enunciate consonants without spasmodic repetition. Known technically as dysphemia, it has sometimes been attributed to an underlying personality disorder. About half of all those who have speech and voice defects suffer from stuttering or stammering (the terms are used interchangeably). In 65% of people who stutter, there is a family history of the disorder, thus suggesting a genetic link. Studies with twins have also indicated that inheritance has an important role in stuttering; comparing pairs in which at least one twin stuttered, it has been found that identical twins were much more likely to be stutterers than fraternal twins (see multiple birth). Brain scans of stutterers have found higher than normal activity in brain areas that coordinate conscious movement, suggesting that in people who stutter speech occurs less automatically than it does in most people.

In many instances the speech disturbance appears to be precipitated by such situations as a change of surroundings, the advent of a younger child in the family, or by a family environment in which parents are overly concerned with childhood speech interruptions, which occur normally. Negative reactions to the stuttering frequently create feelings of inadequacy and anxiety, which, in turn, intensify the condition. Parents with young children who stutter have been urged by specialists to help their children develop positive attitudes about themselves and their speech. Older stutterers are taught to understand what processes interfere with fluent speech and to speak without the disruptions caused by tension. Psychiatric treatment and group psychotherapy have been helpful for many.

Bibliography

See M. Jezer, Stuttering: A Life Bound Up in Words (1997).


Psychoanalysis: Stammering
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Stammering is a disorder in the rate of speech delivery. It appears in the communication patterns of children aged between two and five and is characterized by repetitions or blockages that lead to ruptures in the rhythm and melody of speech. Three out of four children are destined to overcome it before adolescence. Stammering is a universal complaint and has been documented in the most ancient cultures.

Sigmund Freud associated this type of disorder with hysteria, but classified it separately as a fixation neurosis (on an organ [of speech]). Otto Fenichel located this functional speech disorder in the group of pregenital conversion neuroses. The patient's mental structure was the same as that of an obsessive, whereas the symptomatology was of the conversion type. Speech had acquired an unconscious significance related either to its verbal content or to the general meaning of the function of "speaking" itself, as in severe cases of stammering in which the speech act represents a reprehensible drive.

Bernard Barrau draws attention to the frequent presence of situations of oral violence in these cases, and fantasies of "forcible introduction," whether in relation to forced food or its metaphorical equivalents (the voice and speech of the mother). Ivan Fonagy stresses the fact that speech is capable of absorbing narcissistic, oral, anal, or genital libido, and reports observations of parallel strategies in the anal and glottal sphincter (stammering when establishing sphincter control), and upward transfers of anal libdinal cathexis (one of Charlotte Balkany's patients identified resonant air with air emitted by the anal sphincter). René Diatkine points to the absence of a psychic structure specific to stammering subjects, whose symptom, as a disorder in verbal communication, modifies their relational system, particularly the balance between narcissistic- and object-cathexes.

Annie Anzieu traces the elements in the neurotic dynamics of stammering subjects. An anal-sadistic relation is often established between the (grasping and abusive) mother and the child, with the child fixating on a dual, merging relation with the mother, excluding all connections to a third object, unless it takes part in the mother-child whole. Stammerers thus have difficulty in engaging oedipal problems. Supervisions must be redoubled in order to integrate oedipal prohibtions into the ego, because what enters the body or comes out of it assumes a new erotic meaning. The speech act permanently alludes to castration anxiety. This relational mode leads to the persistence of what Melanie Klein calls the paranoid-schizoid position. Indeed the stammerer is persecuted by a particularly demanding father and mother. All verbal emissions are problematic. Like feces, words are experienced as aggressive objects whose true intentions may be to wound or kill. They become the concrete symbols of interiorized aggressive objects. These paranoid characteristics entail a considerable obsessional element as well. Stammerers exhaust their discourse to the point of fragmentation; they remain haunted by the specific words they should be saying. Obsessional cathexis of discourse can be understood in the process of neurotic construction as a superegoic symptom in relation to the hysterical symptom stammering constitutes. The phonetic dysfunction and suffering caused by verbal emission are a form of hysterical conversion, a conversion that lends genital significance to an originally anal-sadistic symptom. The stammerer expresses the conflict he has always experienced through his symptom; the subject hides behind it. The act of speaking conceals what is said. The psychotherapy or psychoanalysis of stammerers always evinces these hysterical, obsessional, and paranoid contents in a more or less typical fashion depending on the moment in treatment and patient in question. For Nicole Fabre, stammering is an archaic difficulty shot through with oral aggressivity and anal sadism, from which the subject has not yet been able to break free in order to fully accede to oedipal triangulation.

Although psychoanalytic treament is rarely indicated initially, especially with children, this approach does provide an understanding of the disorder that does not exclude its meaning from the outset.

The etiology of stammering is unknown. Constitutional factors interact with environmental ones in addition to factors linked to the personal dynamics of the child in varying proportions depending on the subject in question, thus illustrating the uniqueness of the trouble each stammerer faces.

Bibliography

Anzieu, Annie. (1989). De la chair au verbe. In Psychanalyse et langage: Du corpsà la parole (pp. 103-127). Paris: Dunod. (Original work published 1977)

Barrau, Bernard. (1989). Begaiement et violence orale. In Psychanalyse et langage: Du corps à la parole. Paris: Dunod. (Original work published 1977)

Fabre, Nicole. (1986). Des cailloux plein la bouche. Paris: Fleurus.

Fenichel, Otto. (1953). Respiratory introjection. In The collected papers, first series. New York, W.W. Norton.

Fonagy, Ivan. (1983). La Vive Voix: essais de psycho-phonétique. Paris: Payot.

Freud, Sigmund, and Breuer, Josef. (1895d). Studies on hysteria. SE, 2: 48-106.

—CHRISTIAN PAYAN

Wikipedia: Stuttering
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Stuttering
Classification and external resources
ICD-10 F98.5
ICD-9 307.0
OMIM 184450 609261
MeSH D013342

Stuttering (alalia syllabaris), also known as stammering (alalia literalis or anarthria literalis), is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds[1]. 'Verbal non-fluency' is the accepted[citation needed] umbrella term for such speech impediments. The term stuttering is most commonly associated with involuntary sound repetition, but it also encompasses the abnormal hesitation or pausing before speech, referred to by stutterers as blocks, and the prolongation of certain sounds, usually vowels and semi-vowels. The term "stuttering", as popularly used, covers a wide spectrum of severity: it may encompass individuals with barely perceptible impediments, for whom the disorder is largely cosmetic, as well as others with extremely severe symptoms, for whom the problem can effectively prevent most oral communication. The impact of stuttering on a person's functioning and emotional state can be severe. Much of this goes unnoticed by the listener, and may include fears of having to enunciate specific vowels or consonants, fears of being caught stuttering in social situations, self-imposed isolation, anxiety, stress, shame, or a feeling of "loss of control" during speech. Stuttering is sometimes popularly associated with anxiety or low intelligence, but there is actually no such correlation (though as mentioned social anxiety may actually result in individuals as a result of their stuttering). Despite popular perceptions to the contrary[2], stuttering does not affect and has no bearing on intelligence.

Stuttering is generally not a problem with the physical production of speech sounds or putting thoughts into words. Apart from their speech impediment, people who stutter may well be 'normal' in the clinical sense of the term. Anxiety, low self-esteem, nervousness, and stress therefore do not cause stuttering per se, although they are very often the result of living with a highly stigmatized disability and, in turn, exacerbate the problem in the manner of a positive feedback system.

The disorder is also variable, which means that in certain situations, such as talking on the telephone, the stuttering might be more severe or less, depending on the anxiety level connected with that activity. Although the exact etiology of stuttering is unknown, both genetics and neurophysiology are thought to contribute. There are many treatments and speech therapy techniques available that may help increase fluency in some stutterers to the point where an untrained ear can not identify a problem; however, there is essentially no "cure" for the disorder at present.[citation needed]

Contents

Classification

Developmental stuttering is stuttering that originates when a child is learning to speak and develops as the child matures into adulthood. Other speech disorders with symptoms resembling stuttering are cluttering, Parkinson's speech, essential tremor, spasmodic dysphonia, selective mutism and social anxiety.

Characteristics

Primary behaviors

Primary stuttering behaviors are the overt, observable signs of speech fluency breakdown, including repeating sounds, syllables, words or phrases, silent blocks and prolongation of sounds. These differ in from the normal disfluencies found in all speakers in that stuttering disfluencies may last longer, occur more frequently, and are produced with more effort and strain.[3] Stuttering disfluencies also vary in quality: normal disfluencies tend to be a repetition of words, phrases or parts of phrases, while stuttering is characterized by prolongations, blocks and part-word repetitions.[4]

  • Repetition occurs when a unit of speech, such as a sound, syllable, word, or phrase is repeated and are typical in children who are beginning to stutter. For example, "to-to-to-tomorrow".
  • Prolongations are the unnatural lengthening of continuant sounds, for example,"mmmmmmmmmilk". Prolongations are also common in children beginning to stutter.
  • Blocks are inappropriate cessation of sound and air, often associated with freezing of the movement of the tongue, lips and/or vocal folds. Blocks often develop later, and can be associated with muscle tension and effort.[5]

Secondary behaviors

Secondary stuttering behaviors are unrelated to speech production and are learned behaviors which become linked to the primary behaviors.

Secondary behaviors include escape behaviors, in which a stutterer attempts to terminate a moment of stuttering. Examples might be physical movements such as sudden loss of eye contact, eye-blinking, head jerks, hand tapping, interjected "starter" sounds and words, such as "um," "ah," "you know" or even "tongue clicking".[6][7] In many cases, these devices work at first, and are therefore reinforced, becoming a habit that is subsequently difficult to break.[7]

Secondary behaviors also refer to the use of avoidance strategies such as avoiding specific words, people or situations that the person finds difficult. Some stutterers successfully use extensive avoidance of situations and words to maintain fluency and may have little or no evidence of primary stuttering behaviors. Such covert stutterers may have high levels of anxiety, and extreme fear of even the most mild dis-fluency.[6]

Variability

The severity of a stutter is often not constant even for severe stutterers. Stutterers commonly report dramatically increased fluency when talking in unison with another speaker, copying another's speech, whispering, singing, and acting or when talking to pets, young children, or themselves.[8] Other situations, such as public speaking and speaking on the telephone are often greatly feared by stutterers, and increased stuttering is reported.[9]

Feelings and attitudes

Stuttering may have a significant negative cognitive and affective impact on the stutterer. In a famous analogy, Joseph Sheehan, a prominent researcher in the field, compared stuttering to an iceberg, with the overt aspects of stuttering above the waterline, and the larger mass of negative emotions invisible below the surface.[10] Feelings of embarrassment, shame, frustration, fear, anger, and guilt are frequent in stutterers,[11] and may actually increase tension and effort, leading to increased stuttering.[12] With time, continued exposure to difficult speaking experiences may crystallize into a negative self-concept and self-image. A stutterer may project his or her attitudes onto others, believing that they think he or she is nervous or stupid. Such negative feelings and attitudes may need to be a major focus of a treatment program.[12]

Many stutterers report about a high emotional cost, including jobs or promotions not received, as well as relationships broken or not pursued.[13]

Sub-types

Developmental

Stuttering is typically a developmental disorder beginning in early childhood and continuing into adulthood in at least 20% of affected children.[14][15] The mean onset of stuttering is 30 months.[16] Although there is variability, early stuttering behaviours usually consist of word or syllable repetitions, and secondary behaviours such as tension, avoidance or escape behaviours are absent.[17] Most young children are unaware of the interruptions in their speech.[17] With early stutterers, disfluency may be episodic, and periods of stuttering are followed by periods of relative fluency.[18] Though the rate of early recovery is very high,[14] with time a young stutterer may transition from easy, relaxed repetition to more tense and effortful stuttering, including blocks and prolongations.[17] Some propose that parental reaction may affect the development of chronic stutter. Recommendations to slow down, take a breath, say it again, etc may increase the child’s anxiety and fear, leading to more difficulties with speaking and, in the “cycle of stuttering” to ever yet more fear, anxiety and expectation of stuttering.[19] With time secondary stuttering including escape behaviours such eye blinking, lip movements, etc. may be used, as well as fear and avoidance of sounds, words, people, or speaking situations. Eventually, many become fully aware of their disorder and begin to identify themselves as "stutterers." With this may come deeper frustration, embarrassment and shame.[20] Other, rarer, patterns of stuttering development have been described, including sudden onset with the child being unable to speak, despite attempts to do so.[21] The child usually blocks silently of the first sound of a sentence, and shows high levels of awareness and frustration. Another variety also begins suddenly with frequent word and phrase repetition, and do not develop secondary stuttering behaviours.[21]

Acquired

In rare cases, stuttering may be acquired in adulthood as the result of a neurological event such as a head injury, tumour, stroke or drug abuse/misuse. The stuttering has different characteristics from its developmental equivalent: it tends to be limited to part-word or sound repetitions, and is associated with a relative lack of anxiety and secondary stuttering behaviors. Techniques such as altered auditory feedback (see below) which may promote fluency in stutterers with the developmental condition, are not effective with the acquired type.[14][15][22]

Psychogenic stuttering may also arise after a traumatic experience such as a bereavement, the breakup of a relationship or as the psychological reaction to physical trauma. Its symptoms tend to be homogeneous: the stuttering is of sudden onset and associated with a significant event, it is constant and uninfluenced by different speaking situations, and there is little awareness or concern shown by the speaker.[23]

Causes of developmental stuttering

No single, exclusive cause of developmental stuttering is known. A variety of hypotheses and theories suggest multiple factors contributing to stuttering.[14] Among these is the strong evidence that stuttering has a genetic basis.[24] Children who have first-degree relatives who stutter are three times as likely to develop a stutter.[25] However, twin and adoption studies suggest that genetic factors interact with environmental factors for stuttering to occur,[26] and forty to seventy percent of stutterers have no family history of the disorder.[27] There is evidence that stuttering is more common in children who also have concomitant speech, language, learning or motor difficulties.[28]

In some stutterers, congenital factors may play a role. These may include physical trauma at or around birth, including cerebral palsy, retardation, or stressful situations, such as the birth of a sibling, moving, or a sudden growth in linguistic ability.[24][26]

There is clear empirical evidence for structural and functional differences in the brains of stutterers. Research is complicated somewhat by the possibility that such differences could be the consequences of stuttering rather than a cause, but recent research on older children confirm structural differences thereby giving strength to the argument that at least some of the differences are not a consequence of stuttering.[29][30]

Auditory processing deficits have also been proposed as a cause of stuttering. Stuttering is less prevalent in deaf and hard of hearing individuals,[31] and stuttering may be improved when auditory feedback is altered, such as masking, delayed auditory feedback (DAF), or frequency altered feedback.[14][32] There is some evidence that the functional organization of the auditory cortex may be different in stutterers.[14]

There is evidence of differences in linguistic processing between stutterers and non-stutterers.[33] Brain scans of adult stutterers have found increased activation of the right hemisphere, which is associated with emotions, than in the left hemisphere, which is associated with speech. In addition reduced activation in the left auditory cortex has been observed.[14][26]

The capacities and demands model has been proposed to account for the heterogeneity of the disorder. In this approach, speech performance varies depending on the capacity that the individual has for producing fluent speech, and the demands placed upon the person by the speaking situation. Capacity for fluent speech, which may be affected by a predisposition to the disorder, auditory processing or motor speech deficits, and cognitive or affective issues. Demands may be increased by internal factors such as lack of confidence or self esteem or inadequate language skills or external factors such as peer pressure, time pressure, stressful speaking situations, insistence on perfect speech, and the like. In stuttering, the severity of the disorder is seen as likely to increase when demands placed on the person's speech and language system is exceeded by their capacity to deal with these pressures.[34]

Treatment

Fluency shaping therapy

Fluency shaping therapy, also known as "speak more fluently", "prolonged speech" or "connected speech", trains stutterers to speak fluently by controlling their breathing, phonation, and articulation (lips, jaw, and tongue). It is based on operant conditioning techniques.[35]

Stutterers are trained to reduce their speaking rate by stretching vowels and consonants, and using other fluency techniques such as continuous airflow and soft speech contacts. The result is very slow, monotonic, but fluent speech used only in the speech clinic. After the stutterer masters these fluency skills, the speaking rate and intonation are increased gradually. This more normal-sounding, fluent speech is then transferred to daily life outside the speech clinic, though lack of speech naturalness at the end of treatment remains a frequent criticism. Fluency shaping approaches are often taught in intensive group therapy programs, which may take two to three weeks to complete, but more recently the Camperdown program, using a much shorter schedule, has been shown to be effective.[36]

Stuttering modification therapy

The goal of stuttering modification therapy is not to eliminate stuttering but to modify it so that stuttering is easier and less effortful.[37] The rationale is that since fear and anxiety causes increased stuttering, using easier stuttering and with less fear and avoidance, stuttering will decrease. The most widely known approach was published by Charles Van Riper in 1973 and is also known as block modification therapy.[38]

As proposed by Van Riper, stuttering modification therapy has four overlapping stages:[39]

  • In the first stage, called identification, the stutterer and clinician identify the core behaviors, secondary behaviors, and feelings and attitudes that characterize the stuttering.
  • In the second stage, called desensitization, the stutterer works to reduce fear and anxiety by freezing stuttering behaviors, confronting difficult sounds, words and situations, and intentionally stuttering ("voluntary stuttering").
  • In the third stage, called modification, the stutterer learns "easy stuttering." This is done by "cancellations" (stopping in a dysfluency, pausing a few moments, and saying the word again); "pull-outs," or pulling out of a dysfluency into fluent speech; and "preparatory sets," or looking ahead for words one may stutter on, and using "easy stuttering" on those words.
  • In the fourth stage, called stabilization, the stutterer prepares practice assignments, makes preparatory sets and pull-outs automatic, and changes their self-concept from being a person who stutters to being a person who speaks fluently most of the time but who occasionally stutters mildly.

Electronic fluency devices

Altered auditory feedback, so that stutterers hear their voice differently, have been used for over 50 years in the treatment of stuttering.[40] Altered auditory feedback effect can be produced by speaking in chorus with another person, by blocking out the stutterer's voice while talking (masking), by delaying the stutterer's voice slightly (delayed auditory feedback) and/or by altering the frequency of the feedback (frequency altered feedback). Studies of these techniques have had mixed results, with some stutterers showing substantial reductions in stuttering, while others improved only slightly or not at all.[40] In a 2006 review of the efficacy of stuttering treatments, none of the studies on altered auditory feedback met the criteria for experimental quality, such as the presence of control groups.[41]

Anti-stuttering medications

The effectiveness of pharmacological agents, such as benzodiazepines, anti-convulsants, anti-depressants, antipsychotic and antihypertensive medications, and dopamine antagonists in the treatment of stuttering has been evaluated in studies involving both adults and children.[42] A comprehensive review of pharmacological treatments of stuttering in 2006 concluded that few of the drug trials were methodologically sound.[42] Of those that were, only one, not unflawed study,[43] showed a reduction in the frequency stuttering to less than 5% of words spoken. In addition, potentially serious side effects of pharmacological treatments were noted[42], such as weight gain and the potential for blood pressure increases. There is one new drug studied especially for stuttering named pagoclone, which was found to be well-tolerated "with only minor side-effects of headache and fatigue reported in a minority of those treated"[44].

Support Groups and the Self-Help Movement

With existing behavioral, prosthetic, and pharmaceutical treatments providing limited relief from the overt symptoms of stuttering, support groups and the self-help movement continues to gain popularity and support by professionals and people who stutter. One of the basic tenets behind the self-help movement is that since a cure does not exist, quality of living can be improved by improved acceptance of self and stuttering.

Prognosis

Among preschoolers, the prognosis for recovery is good. Based on research, about 65% of preschoolers who stutter recover spontaneously in the first two years of stuttering,[16][45] and about 74% recover by their early teens.[46] In particular, girls seem to recover well.[46][47] For others, early intervention is effective in helping the child achieve normal fluency.[48]

Once stuttering has become established, and the child has developed secondary behaviors, the prognosis is more guarded,[48] and only 18% of children who stutter after five years recover spontaneously.[49] However, with treatment young children may be left with little evidence of stuttering.[48]

With adult stutterers, there is no known cure,[46] though they may make partial recovery with intervention. Stutterers often learn to stutter less severely and be less affected emotionally, though others may make no progress with therapy.[48]

Epidemiology

The lifetime prevalence, or the proportion of individuals expected to stutter at one time in their lives, is about 5%,[50] and overall males are affected two to five times more often than females.[15][51][52] Most stuttering begins in early childhood and according studies suggest 2.5% of children under the age of 5 stutter.[53][54] The sex ratio appears to widen as children grow: among preschoolers, boys who stutter outnumber girls who stutter about two to one, or less.[52][54] but widens to three to one at first grade and five to one at fifth grade,[55] due to higher recovery rates in girls.[46] Due to high (approximately 65–75%) rates of early recovery,[51][56] the overall prevalence of stuttering is generally considered to be approximately 1%.[15][57]

Stuttering occurs in all cultures and races[24] at similar rates.[15] A US-based study indicated that there were no racial or ethnic differences in the incidence of stuttering in preschool children.[53][54] Summarizing prevalence studies, E. Cooper and C. Cooper conclude: “On the basis of the data currently available, it appears the prevalence of fluency disorders varies among the cultures of the world, with some indications that the prevalence of fluency disorders labeled as stuttering is higher among black populations than white or Asian populations” (Cooper & Cooper, 1993:197)

Lewis Carroll, the well-known author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was afflicted with a stammer, as were his siblings.

History and cultural aspects

For centuries stuttering has featured prominently in society at large. Because of the unusual-sounding speech that is produced, as well as the behaviors and attitudes that accompany a stutter, stuttering has been a subject of scientific interest, curiosity, discrimination, and ridicule. Stuttering was, and essentially still is, a riddle with a long history of interest and speculation into its causes and cures. Stutterers can be traced back centuries to the likes of Demosthenes, who tried to control his disfluency by speaking with pebbles in his mouth.[58] The Talmud interprets Bible passages to indicate Moses was also a stutterer, and that placing a burning coal in his mouth had caused him to be "slow and hesitant of speech" (Exodus 4, v.10)[58]

Galen's humoral theories remained influential in Europe into the Middle Ages and beyond. In this theory, stuttering was attributed to imbalances of the four bodily humors: yellow bile, blood, black bile, and phlegm. Hieronymus Mercurialis, writing in the sixteenth century, proposed methods to redress the imbalance including changes in diet, reduced lovemaking (in men only), and purging. Believing that fear aggravated stuttering, he suggested techniques to overcome this. Humoral manipulation continued to be a dominant treatment for stuttering until the eighteenth century.[59] Partly due to a perceived lack of intelligence because of his stutter, the man who became the Roman Emperor Claudius was initially shunned from the public eye and excluded from public office.[58]

In eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe or around there, surgical interventions for stuttering were recommended, including cutting the tongue with scissors, removing a triangular wedge from the posterior tongue, cutting nerves, and neck and lip muscles. Others recommended shortening the uvula or removing the tonsils. All were abandoned due to the high danger of bleeding to death and their failure to stop stuttering. Less drastically, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard placed a small forked golden plate under the tongue in order to support "weak" muscles.[58]

Notker Balbulus, from a medieval manuscript.

Italian pathologist Giovanni Morgagni attributed stuttering to deviations in the hyoid bone, a conclusion he came to via autopsy.[59] Blessed Notker of St. Gall (ca. 840–912), called Balbulus (“The Stutterer”) and described by his biographer as being "delicate of body but not of mind, stuttering of tongue but not of intellect, pushing boldly forward in things Divine," was invoked against stammering.

Other famous Englishmen who stammered were King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led the UK through World War II. George VI went through years of speech therapy for his stammer. Churchill claimed, perhaps not directly discussing himself, "Sometimes a slight and not unpleasing stammer or impediment has been of some assistance in securing the attention of the audience...".[60] However, those who knew Churchill and commented on his stutter believed that it was or had been a significant problem for him. His secretary Phyllis Moir in her 1941 book 'I was Winston Churchill's Private Secretary' commented that 'Winston Churchill was born and grew up with a stutter'. Moir writes also about one incident 'It’s s s simply s s splendid” he stuttered, as he always did when excited.’ Louis J. Alber. who helped to arrange a lecture tour of the United States wrote in Volume 55 of The American Mercury (1942) ‘Churchill struggled to express his feelings but his stutter caught him in the throat and his face turned purple' and ‘Born with a stutter and a lisp, both caused in large measure by a defect in his palate, Churchill was at first seriously hampered in his public speaking. It is characteristic of the man’s perseverance that, despite his staggering handicap, he made himself one of the greatest orators of our time.’ (More on Churchill at [1])


For centuries "cures" such as consistently drinking water from a snail shell for the rest of one's life, "hitting a stutterer in the face when the weather is cloudy", strengthening the tongue as a muscle, and various herbal remedies were used.[61] Similarly, in the past people have subscribed to theories about the causes of stuttering which today are considered odd. Proposed causes of stuttering have included tickling an infant too much, eating improperly during breastfeeding, allowing an infant to look in the mirror, cutting a child's hair before the child spoke his or her first words, having too small a tongue, or the "work of the devil."[61]

Jazz and Euro Dance musician Scatman John wrote the song "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)" to help children who stutter overcome adversity. Born John Paul Larkin, Scatman spoke with a stutter himself and won the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Annie Glenn Award for outstanding service to the stuttering community. [2]

Fiction character Albert Arkwright from British sitcom Open All Hours, stammered and much of the series' humour revolved around this.

Other notable personalities that stutter or have stuttered include actress Marilyn Monroe, author John Updike, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware (currently Vice President of the United States), actor James Earl Jones, journalist John Stossel, singer Carly Simon and sportscaster Bill Walton[62][63].

See also

Notes

  1. ^ World Health Organization ICD-10 F95.8 - Stuttering
  2. ^ Myths about stuttering
  3. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 5–6
  4. ^ Kalinowski 2006, pp. 31–37
  5. ^ Guitar 2005, pp. 14–15
  6. ^ a b Ward 2006, pp. 6–7
  7. ^ a b Guitar 2005, p. 16
  8. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 13–14
  9. ^ Ward 2006, p. 14
  10. ^ Kalinowski 2006, p. 17
  11. ^ Ward 2006, p. 179
  12. ^ a b Guitar 2005, pp. 16–7
  13. ^ NYTimes - To Fight Stuttering, Doctors Look at the Brain (POLLACK, Andrew; published Sept. 12, 2006)
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Gordon, N (2002). "Stuttering: incidence and causes". Developmental medicine and child neurology 44 (4): 278–81. doi:10.1017/S0012162201002067. PMID 11995897. 
  15. ^ a b c d e Craig, A; Tran, Y (2005). "The epidemiology of stuttering: The need for reliable estimates of prevalence and anxiety levels over the lifespan". Advances in Speech–Language Pathology 7 (1): 41–46. PMID 17429528. 
  16. ^ a b Yairi, E; Ambrose, N (1992). "Onset of stuttering in preschool children: selected factors". Journal of speech and hearing research 35 (4): 782–8. PMID 1405533. 
  17. ^ a b c Ward 2006, p. 13
  18. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 114–5
  19. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 13, 115
  20. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 115–116
  21. ^ a b Ward 2006, pp. 117–119
  22. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 4, 332–335
  23. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 4, 332, 335–337
  24. ^ a b c Guitar 2005, pp. 5–6
  25. ^ Ward 2006, p. 11
  26. ^ a b c Guitar 2005, p. 66
  27. ^ Guitar 2005, p. 39
  28. ^ Ward 2006, p. 12
  29. ^ Kate, Watkins (2007). "Structural and functional abnormalities of the motor system in developmental stuttering.". Brain 131: 50. doi:10.1093/brain/awm241. PMID 17928317. 
  30. ^ Soo-Eun, Chang (2007). "Brain anatomy differences in childhood stuttering.". NeuroImage. 
  31. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 46–7
  32. ^ Ward 2006, p. 58
  33. ^ Ward 2006, p. 43
  34. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 16–21
  35. ^ Ward 2006, p. 257
  36. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 257–67
  37. ^ Ward 2006, p. 253
  38. ^ Ward 2006, p. 245
  39. ^ Ward 2006, pp. 247–53
  40. ^ a b Bothe, AK; Finn, P; Bramlett, RE (2007). "Pseudoscience and the SpeechEasy: Reply to Kalinowski, Saltuklaroglu, Stuart, and Guntupalli (2007)". American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 16: 77–83. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2007/010). PMID 17329678. 
  41. ^ Bothe, AK; Davidow, JH; Bramlett, RE; Ingham, RJ (2006). "Stuttering Treatment Research 1970-2005: I. Systematic Review Incorporating Trial Quality Assessment of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Related Approaches". American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 15: 321–341. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2006/031). PMID 17102144. 
  42. ^ a b c Bothe, AK; Davidow, JH; Bramlett, RE; Franic, DM; Ingham, RJ (2006). "Stuttering Treatment Research 1970-2005: II. Systematic Review Incorporating Trial Quality Assessment of Pharmacological Approaches". American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 15: 342–352. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2006/032). PMID 17102145. 
  43. ^ Maguire, GA; Riley, GD; Franklin, DL; Gottschalk, LA (2000). "Risperidone for the treatment of stuttering". Journal of clinical psychopharmacology 20 (4): 479–82. doi:10.1097/00004714-200008000-00013. PMID 10917410. 
  44. ^ New drugs for stuttering may be on the horizon (Stuttering Foundation's summer 2007 newsletter. Maguire, Gerald A., University of California, Irvine School of Medicine)
  45. ^ Yairi, E (1993). "Epidemiologic and other considerations in treatment efficacy research with preschool-age children who stutter". Journal of Fluency Disorders 18: 197–220. doi:10.1016/0094-730X(93)90007-Q. 
  46. ^ a b c d Ward 2006, p. 16
  47. ^ Yairi, E (Fall 2005). "On the Gender Factor in Stuttering". Stuttering Foundation of America newsletter: 5. 
  48. ^ a b c d Guitar 2005, p. 7
  49. ^ Andrews, G; Craig, A; Feyer, AM; Hoddinott, S; Howie, P; Neilson, M (1983). "Stuttering: a review of research findings and theories circa 1982". The Journal of speech and hearing disorders 48 (3): 226–46. PMID 6353066. 
  50. ^ Mansson, H (2000). "Childhood stuttering: Incidence and development". Journal of Fluency Disorders 25 (1): 47–57. doi:10.1016/S0094-730X(99)00023-6. 
  51. ^ a b Yairi, E; Ambrose, N; Cox, N (1996). "Genetics of stuttering: a critical review". Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research 39: 771–784. 
  52. ^ a b Kloth, S; Janssen, P; Kraaimaat, F; Brutten, G (1995). "Speech-motor and linguistic skills of young stutterers prior to onset". Journal of Fluency Disorders 20 (20): 157–70. doi:10.1016/0094-730X(94)00022-L. 
  53. ^ a b Proctor, A; Duff, M; Yairi, E (2002). "Early childhood stuttering: African Americans and European Americans". ASHA Leader 4 (15): 102. 
  54. ^ a b c Yairi, E; Ambrose, N (2005). "Early childhood stuttering". Pro-Ed (Austin, Texas). 
  55. ^ Guitar 2005, p. 22
  56. ^ Yairi, E; Ambrose, NG (1999). "Early childhood stuttering I: persistency and recovery rates". J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 42 (5): 1097–112. PMID 10515508. 
  57. ^ Craig, A; Hancock, K; Tran, Y; Craig, M; Peters, K (2002). "Epidemiology of stuttering in the community across the entire life span". J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 45 (6): 1097–105. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2002/088). PMID 12546480. 
  58. ^ a b c d Brosch, S; Pirsig, W (2001). "Stuttering in history and culture". Int. J. Pediatr. Otorhinolaryngol. 59 (2): 81–7. doi:10.1016/S0165-5876(01)00474-8. PMID 11378182. 
  59. ^ a b Rieber, RW; Wollock, J (1977). "The historical roots of the theory and therapy of stuttering". Journal of communication disorders 10 (1-2): 3–24. doi:10.1016/0021-9924(77)90009-0. PMID 325028. 
  60. ^ "Churchill: A Study in Oratory". The Churchill Centre. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=814. Retrieved 2005-04-05. 
  61. ^ a b Kuster, Judith Maginnis (2005-04-01). "Folk Myths About Stuttering". Minnesota State University. http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Infostuttering/folkmyths.html. Retrieved 2005-04-03. 
  62. ^ BOBRICK, Benson. Knotted Tongues: Stuttering in History and the Quest for a Cure. Simon & Schuster, 1995.
  63. ^ NYTimes.com - To Fight Stuttering, Doctors Look at the Brain (Published on Sept. 12, 2006 - Andrew Pollack)

References

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