JournalTOCs School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK Email: journaltocs@hw.ac.uk Tel: +00 44 (0)131 4513762  Your IP address: 3.236.50.252 |
JournalTOCs School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK Email: journaltocs@hw.ac.uk Tel: +00 44 (0)131 4513762 Your IP address: 3.236.50.252 |
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical account of the experience of stuttering that incorporates previous explanations and recent experimental findings. According to this account, stuttering-like disfluencies emerge during early childhood from excessive detection of cognitive conflict due to subtle limitations in speech and language processes. For a subset of children who begin to stutter, the development of approach-avoidance motivational conflict likely contributes to a chronic reliance on cognitive control processes during speech. Consequently, maladaptive activation of right hemisphere inhibitory cortices to the basal ganglia via a hyperdirect pathway results in involuntary, episodic, and transient freezing of the motor system during speech initiation. This freeze response, consistent with defensive behavior in threatening situations, may lead to stuttering persistence, tension and struggle, maladaptive speech physiology, and feelings of anxiety and loss of control.
Language skills have long been posited to be a factor contributing to developmental stuttering. The current study aimed to evaluate whether novel word recognition, a critical skill for language development, differentiated children who stutter from children who do not stutter. Twenty children who stutter and 18 children who do not stutter, aged 3–8 years, completed a novel word recognition task. Real-time eye gaze was used to evaluate online learning. Retention was measured immediately and after a 1-hr delay. Children who stutter and children who do not stutter exhibited similar patterns of online novel word recognition. Both groups also had comparable retention accuracy. Together, these results revealed that novel word recognition and retention were similar in children who stutter and children who do not stutter. These patterns suggest that differences observed in previous studies of language in stuttering may not be driven by novel word recognition abilities in children who stutter.
This article highlights the value for speech–language pathologists of considering the overall stuttering condition—including speakers' experiences during and around moments of stuttering—in treatment with individuals who stutter. We first highlight a framework for conceptualizing the entirety of the stuttering condition. We then present recent research and clinical perspectives about stuttering to support the claim that speech–language pathologists who account for individual differences in how their clients experience stuttering are better positioned to treat stuttering more effectively. Ultimately, this will yield better treatment outcomes and help clinicians achieve greater gains in quality of life for their clients who stutter.
The purpose of this study was to examine the benefits of a treatment approach for adults who stutter that focuses on core communication competencies rather than attempt to modify speech fluency. Eleven adults who stutter completed a 12-week treatment program at The Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research. Pre- and posttreatment measures included (a) self-reported cognitive and affective aspects of stuttering (Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering [OASES], Self-Perceived Communication Competence [SPCC], Devereux Adult Resilience Survey [DARS], and Self-Compassion Scale [SCS]) and (b) ratings of 9 core communication competencies by an unfamiliar clinician blind to pre/posttreatment status. Participants reported significant mitigation of the adverse impact of stuttering (OASES) and greater resilience (DARS) after treatment. Participants also demonstrated significant gains in 8 of the 9 clinician-perceived communication competencies. Lower pretreatment stuttering frequencies were not significantly associated with posttreatment gains in clinician-perceived communication competencies. Preliminary findings suggest that, similar to findings for children and adolescents who stutter in previous studies, significant psychosocial and communicative benefit can be obtained for adults who stutter following treatment designed to focus on communication effectiveness rather than fluency, and that these gains are not contingent on the participants' stuttering frequency prior to enrollment.
No abstract available
