The Relationship Between Anxiety and Stuttering in Adolescents

For some, a conversation is scary and hopefully avoidable with a smile while others don't think twice about the way something is said. In the article "The Everyday Anxiety of the Stutterer," by Joseph P Carter, he explains what it's like living day to day with a stutter.

L.R. received a total overall score of 29, which was obtained during conversation and a picture description task, in which 300 syllables were analyzed. He obtained a percentile rank of 78-88% and a severe rating when compared to children of his chronological age who stutter. L.R.’s disfluencies consisted primarily of sound repetitions, whole and part word repetitions, phrase repetitions, and the

Hoagland begins his essay with an analogy to help the audience understand his stutter in a clear and visual way. He likens his handicap to “trying to run with loops of rope around your feet” (Hoagland

After 60 years of stuttering, Hoagland reminisces about his struggles and triumphs to overcome his stuttering. While attending school, he learned that, “Life can become a matter of measuring the importance of anything you have to say.” He felt that it was

His conversations are limited with strangers; it is only with close friends and family that Hoagland is able to hold a clear and fluid discussion. His handicap was a factor of low self confidence. Furthermore, some of his scariest moments as a stutterer were as a father when his daughter was learning to speak and thought that she was supposed to stutter, and also when he had to have to give a speech at a wedding. Nonetheless, Hoagland refused to let his stuttering control his life. He is able to get in to the Army by telling them that he only stuttered because he was “nervous,” and even goes on to become a college professor.

The main purpose of this article is to examine various research on the etiology of stuttering. The experimental research explored various brain circuitries involved, specifically the the basal ganglia. Furthermore, the meta-analysis discussed neuroimaging, lesion, pharmacological, and genetic studies on the neural circuitries connected to persistent developmental stuttering and acquired neurogenic stuttering.

One person, a young teen guy, even mocked me. I tried not to let it go too deeply under my skin. I had to keep reminding myself that this was just temporary, just for the assignment. I definitely can’t imagine what those who have or have had a stutter for the majority of their lives go through. Just one short experience of having to stutter made me feel so small. I can’t even begin to fathom how people with an actual stutter feel about themselves, especially when people treat them so cruelly for something that they can’t help. Overall, stuttering made me feel slower and more self-conscious. I felt like I was being judged solely on the stutter and nothing else. I felt as though all the eyes in the food court were on me, even though they weren’t. I felt slower in the sense that it took me longer to say what I wanted and for some reason, I had to deliberate more as to how I would say what I wanted to. When we watched the kids stuttering during the lecture last week and describing how they felt, I could sympathize with them. After having to experience stuttering first hand, I would definitely say that I developed empathy for them and anyone else with a

Barry Yeoman in “Wrestling Words”, expresses the struggles of how stuttering becomes a setback in life. Stuttering may seem like an easy disability to overcome,but for those who struggle know the true devastating pain. Not being able to fit the cookie cutter perfect imagine of society not just physically,but also emotionally impacts stutters. Stuttering seems incurable,but organizations like the National Stuttering Project believe an end is reachable. Stuttering is not a life threatening disease,but a setback to thrive on.

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.

In 1939 an experiment now known as the “Monster Study” was conducted on 22 orphaned children by Wendell Johnson, a very influential speech pathologist at the University of Iowa. In this experiment the orphaned children were divided up into two separate groups. One group was given positive speech therapy, in which they were praised for their fluency. The other group was given negative speech therapy. They were belittled for every speech imperfection and told that they were stutterers. Many of the normal speaking children who were subjected to the negative speech therapy experienced negative psychological effects and some developed lasting speech impediments.

Anxiety Disorder is a sudden feeling of qualms, uneasiness, nervousness, and anxiousness. Symptoms vary for each person. In the adolescent years anxiety shines the most. With school work, and social interaction. In our society, many people diagnose themselves with anxiety, because they are nervous, they believe they have an anxiety disorder. In the adolescent years anxiety is there, but usually mild, in today’s society, because studies show that anxiety has increased over the years. The denotation of anxiety is a sudden feeling of sickness, apprehension, paranoia. Eager and anxious are often used incorrectly, using the opposing one as the other. Anxiety means anticipation of an impending event. However, eager implies that the person looks

This is an article that specifically looks at anxiety in the school setting for adolescents. This article starts off with a story of a girl named Samantha. Samantha is a fourteen year old student that has test taking anxiety. She feels sweaty and would see the nurse daily because of her anxiousness. The article talks about the case of Samantha being common with many students in school. The article then goes into the different characteristics such as worry. Anxiety can manifest in three different ways: behaviorally, physiologically, and cognitively. Many different behaviors that children exhibit because of anxiety are reflected their attempts to control their anxiety. When discussing anxiety, there are different causes of anxiety and

The following is a summary of a journal article titled, “Is Parent -Child Interaction Therapy Effective in Reducing Stuttering?” by Sharon Millard, Alison Nicholas, and Frances Cook. This article was published in the Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research in June 2008, to report the findings of a research conducted on the effects of parent-child interaction therapy approach (PCIT) on children who stutter. It was conducted to add more research and evidence to the efficacy of using the PCIT approach (Millard, Nicholas, & Cook, 2008 p 636).

There are many common types and conditions of anxiety disorders that can be diagnosed based on the symptoms present. The four most prevalent anxiety disorders among teenagers include social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder; many other forms of anxiety exist such as phobias, and panic attacks (Foa and Andrews 3). In a teens life, having anxieties such as social and panic attacks can form habitual actions such as not going anywhere or doing specific things. Social anxiety particularly begins between late childhood and early teens (Foa and Andrews 14). With this anxiety, fear is provoked when thinking about or interacting in a social setting or situation.This discomfort can be specific or general to a certain idea or situation (Foa and Andrews 13). Most types of anxiety disorders can coordinate to another. Like social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder can be directed principally a situations or nothing in particular (Foa and Andrews 14). It can be challenging for teens to explain the source of their anguish especially if they are not diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Generalized anxiety disorder is the most commonly

Fear is a common emotion exhibited by people who stutter (PWS). The fear of negative evaluation is commonly displayed by PWS (Fjola, 1246); when this fear is significantly excessive, the PWS may meet the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of social anxiety (Brundage, Winters, & Beilby, p. 499). Social anxiety frequently causes PWS to isolate themselves from social interactions, and, when in situations, to utilize safety behaviors to prevent stuttering and reduce anxiety. Safety behaviors consequently maintain social anxiety in PWS rather than exacerbate the disorder (Lowe et al., 2017, pp. 1246-1247). More is known regarding the development of social anxiety is adults who stutter (AWS) than the information pertaining to children who stutter (CWS) and their fear of negative evaluation which results in social anxiety (Iverach, Menzies, O’Brian, Packman, & Onslow, 2011, p. 228). The difference in available information may be due to the thought that social anxiety is a short-term effect in CWS but a life-long effect in AWS (Iverach, Jones, McLellan, Lyneham, Menzies, Onslow, & Rapee, 2016, p. 15).