Annotated Bibliography

As a child, I felt overwhelmed with the adversity of stuttering. Not only did I feel linguistically handicapped, but I also had low self-esteem. While I still stutter, I have improved an ineffable amount and through the progression, I discovered my passion for the brain. I learned that the majority of the discrepancy between my speaking and others started with the brain. In addition, my father specialized in neuropathology at Vanderbilt Medical Center. He pushed my growing interest for neuroscience and mental health. With his presence, I also learned to overcome adversity and to always seek knowledge. Because of this, I attended the University of Tennessee’s Stuttering and Research Program to research about the interdependence between stuttering

This documentary focuses on the journey of seven different individuals who are considered people who stutter. I believe it is important to note the statistics of the prevalence of stuttering mentioned in the video. The statistic states that 1 out of 100 adult and 5 out of 100 children are people who stutter. This prevalence is important for speech therapists to become informed and equipped to treat this population. This documentary gives great insight on the struggles and successes of this population.

A phonated interval (PI) is the duration of a signal in a voiced unit in speech production. The use of prolonged speech, or increased PIs, in the treatment of stuttering has been determined to be effective. In the long-term, however, the client who receives this treatment may relapse into their dysfluencies. What this study sought to do was compare the use of this standard form of treatment with a new adult stuttering treatment program, known as Modifying Phonation Intervals (MPI). According

Stuttering is a multifactorial fluency disorder. Motor movements, psychological, and emotional factors have all been shown to influence to progression or regression of this disorder in past research. In order to effectively facilitate fluency in People with a stutter (PWS) it is important to assess and understand all of these factors. The BigCAT is a test to determine the emotional attitudes and beliefs of a PWS regarding their disfluencies. In the article “The BigCAT: A normative and comparative investigation of the communication attitude of nonstuttering and stuttering adults” Martine Vanryckeghem and Gene Brutten assess the content validity of this assessment.

Stuttering may be triggered by being afraid or feeling insecure. For example, most people feel nervous before presenting in front of a class; therefore, the stuttering on a person will show more. They explained two types of stuttering: persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) and acquired stuttering. Developmental stuttering involves the expansion of stuttering while growing up. Acquired stuttering is gained after a traumatic brain injury. There are two different predictors in why stuttering occurs. The first one is triggered by conflicts children undergo through that has not been fixed, and the second one is learned behavior that has not been fixed throughout childhood years. When stuttering is simply a behavior, it is easier to treat. Respiration,

In many studies discrepancies have been found as to whether there is a true link between the two. For instance in a study conducted by Yairi, Ambrose, and Cox (1996), they used subjects that overrepresented older children and adults, (Ratner & Healey, 1999). Additionally, the same article indicates that studies must use younger children near the onset of stuttering in order to observe the child before a recovery process can begin, (Ratner & Healey, 1999). I found that this discrepancy in research was interesting. From what I have heard about stuttering, genetics is strongly linked to stuttering. After reading these articles, it is clear that there is a great disagreement throughout current research. I also was surprised to find the amount of discrepancies in the research because many of the studies did not use longitudinal findings. Many of these studies were short term, and only observed strictly young children or strictly older children and adults. I believe that more longitudinal studies relating to stutterering would be beneficial in finding concrete links to stuttering and other epidemiologic factors. “An important conclusion is that research in genetics of stuttering should strive to focus on samples of young probands before the subject composition is altered under the influence of various factors. Longitudinal studies provide an excellent vehicle for this purpose,”

The author of this article summarizes results from previous studies explaining the experiments done by previous authors. Readers are able to summarize social impacts of stuttering on school-age children, by defining the known

Throughout the modern era stuttering has caused many individuals to reshape the way they act or think. For people affected by stuttering, alterations are real and hard to overcome. Much of the world is based on first impressions; the way one acts and converses is an essential building block in relationships, and it helps one to establish an identity for themselves and others to perceive. With stuttering comes several downturns that affect the mind, body, and the way one is perceived. Researchers have noted many effects of stuttering besides those that are physical, and by understanding the causes of stuttering, researchers may find a cure for these individuals.

Stuttering affects about 4% of the population but only 1% of the population will have a long term affect. (Bloodstein & Bernstein Ratner, 2008) Stuttering usually occur when children are learning their speech and language skills but stuttering is most treatable when children are 2-5 years due to the neuronal plasticity. (Yairi, Ambrose, & Cox, 1996) Not all stuttering will disappear during preschool age and will lead into adolescent and adulthood which can have long-term effects on their cognitive function such as emotional and psychological development.

Rogers, I felt that my knowledge of stuttering and its impacts definitely expanded. It was both revealing and somewhat heartbreaking to know that although school psychologists don’t work directly with kids who stutter, they can still notice the impact that it has on the child. Choosing childhood-onset fluency disorder for this interview was mostly influenced by my own experience with someone who stuttered as an adult. The person who stuttered was my high school science teacher and I vividly remember the first time people heard him speak. Kids would secretly tease him or interrupt him when he was speaking to “speed up” how long he was taking to make a point. Although I know it probably affected him a lot more when he was younger than it did then, I was still sensitive to his communication difficulties.

Stuttering can co-occur with speech sound disorders, language disorders, and intellectual disabilities. Stuttering can interfere with a child’s perceptions of self, social interactions and academic performance. Reactions of individuals in the child’s environment can also impact the child’s experience of stuttering (Yaruss & Coleman 2004).

Fluency shaping teaches the person who stutters (PWS) to “prevent fluency disruptions that trigger stuttering reactions”(Prins & Ingham, 2009, p. 254). The treatment goal of fluency shaping is to restructure an individual’s speech by completely eliminating dysfluencies in order to achieve stutter-free speech. Speech restructuring refers to an approach that helps a person who stutters develop and use a new speech pattern (Blomgren, 2010, p. 275). According

Nearly 5% of all children under the age of 7 go through a period of stuttering.

After watching the CBS video segment on stuttering, some of the insights that I gained from working with children with this disorder is that it can also be called stammering. Stuttering is an involuntary disruption of the rhythm and flow of speech. The person knows what he or she wants to say but just can’t produce the words fluently. Boys are three to four times more likely to stutter than girls. I found it unique that there are not two people who stutter in the same way. The reason why people may stutter is that it revolves around the brain. Many studies have begun to monitor brainwaves and testing motor skills. Children have mentioned that going to counseling has helped them better their speech and helped their self-confidence. Researchers

According to Byron Y. Newman, O.D. in his article Health Notes, In America there are more than 3 million people who stutter. Women are less likely to stutter than men by 4 times. Apparently, while children are passing through the stage of development, 20% of them are affected by stuttering which shows speech problems simple to be a concern to their parents. Children that last 6 months or more stuttering are about 5%, most of them recover in their late childhood. The other 1% are with the long-term problem. Some recommend reading aloud is easier than for others, I have heard that if people who stutter sing out what they like to say, the stuttering might disappear.