Using Brain Imaging to Unravel the Mysteries of Stuttering. StutterTalk.com: Talking about Stuttering. Medical Aspects of Stuttering. Glyndon Riley, Ph.D.Professor EmeritusCalifornia State University, FullertonSummer 2002 If a medication is developed that is useful for people who stutter, it will not be a "cure" that can work in the absence of other forms of therapy.
There is a rationale for including some medical aspects of stuttering in our diagnosis and treatment protocols, but not for excluding established therapies. The history of stuttering theory parallels the history of other complex disorders. First, environmental factors were thought to be the primary cause and it was labeled "functional" or "emotional" and mothers got most of the blame. Stuttering fell into this category in the 1940s and '50s when it was supposed to start in the ears of the listeners. Second, genetic evidence began to emerge for stuttering as it had for such disorders as heart disease, autism, and schizophrenia.
For more information contact the Stuttering Foundation at 1-800-992-9392 or stutter@stutteringhelp.org. Research on Incidence and Prevalence of Stuttering. By Ehud Yairi, Ph.D., University of IllinoisSummer 2005 In a recent conference on stuttering sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), I discussed several factors related to predisposition to stuttering.
These include (a) occurrence, (b) age, (c) gender, (d) genetics, (e) stressors, (f) concomitant disorders, (g) persistency-recovery, and (h) subtypes. Of these, I would like to summarize here a few observations pertaining to the issue of occurrence, that is, how many people stutter. Whereas dry statistical data do not commonly excite the imagination of either researchers or clinicians, such information tells a whole lot about a particular disorder and often has significant influences on public interest, budgetary decisions for research and services, and professional training. Speaking Is No Small Task. By Anne Smith, Ph.D.,Purdue UniversitySummer 2005 Speaking is many things — it is thinking of what one wishes to say, choosing the right words from our vocabulary, putting the words in the proper grammatical framework, communicating the feelings we have, and so on.
The Roots of Stuttering. An article on this study by Dr.
Weber-Fox also appeared in the New York Times By Christine Weber-Fox, Ph.D.,CCC-SLP Purdue University In the last decade, accumulating evidence from laboratories in the U.S. and Europe, as well as our own, led to the development of a multi-factorial model of stuttering. This model of stuttering hypothesizes that stuttering emerges from complex interactions among factors including genetics, language processing, emotional/social aspects, and speech motor control. In our recent series of complementary experiments we studied how neural systems for language processing may contribute to disruptions in speech motor control in people who stutter.
A second approach we have taken to better understand how language processing demands may affect stuttering is to examine brain responses to language tasks when participants are not required to speak. The studies described above have focused on language and motor interactions in adults who stutter. Neural Bases of Stuttering and its Treatment.
Genetic Research on Stuttering. By Dennis Drayna, PhDNational Institute on Deafness andOther Communication DisordersNational Institutes of Health Research advances in genetics are in the news almost every day.
Many of these news reports tell of the discovery of a gene that causes a disease or other medical problem. While these reports are often exciting and provocative, it is often not easy to understand exactly what has been discovered and how that discovery will help the people with that disorder. Are the brains of stuttering people different. By Anne L.
Foundas, MD, Summer 2001Tulane University For the past four years, our research group has been interested in learning more about the biological basis of stuttering. In earlier studies, our group and others have found that specific brain regions that mediate speech, language and motor functions are asymmetric or larger in one hemisphere than the other, and the larger region is often functionally dominant. Teachers. The material in this brochure was updatedby Lisa Scott, Ph.D., The Florida State University.
Download a PDF of the brochure. Teachers often report difficulty in knowing what to do about a child who stutters in the classroom. For example... Should he be expected to give oral reports, read out loud, or answer questions? Should you talk to him about his speech or ignore it? The pre-school and kindergarten child All children in this age group are busily learning to talk. If you are concerned that there may be a problem of stuttering developing with one of these children, don't pay any special attention to the child at this point. Also, talk to the parents about their opinion of the problem so that you know whether this is typical speech behavior for him. The elementary school child A major concern for most teachers is the child's reactions to his stuttering in the classroom. Talk with the child: show your support. Dear Teacher. Dear Teacher, You are asked to read this because you have a child in your class who stutters.
Stuttering changes from moment to moment and is different in each child. That makes it difficult to deal with. Quite possibly the stuttering of this particular child is no problem for you or for any of the other children. But it is also possible that the other children react to the stuttering and that you yourself are not always sure how best to handle the problem. Teachers usually have a lot of questions... can I be of any help? Basic Research.