Stuttering awareness day 2021

This year, Åse and I (Linn) have participated in two different activities to raise awareness and knowledge of stuttering on the 22nd of October. In a webinar arranged by Statped, Åse brilliantly summarized what we know about stuttering treatment and participated in a panel debate. Hilda Sønsterud, Berit Løkken and Trude Beseth Nordeide also contributed with their insights, reflections and knowledge in the successful webinar with more than 350 participants. 

Katja Evjen asked me to be a guest in the podcast “Læring” in association with the International Stuttering Awareness day. Læring is made by journalist Monica Bjermeland and produced by Shane Colvin. The podcast touches upon many of the different interesting topics that is investigated at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at UiO. 

The other guest in the podcast was Elisabeth Egner, a young woman who has been stuttering since she was five years old. Elisabeth bravely shared her story in the studio, and listeners of the podcast gets an insight into how stuttering can be experienced during childhood and adolescence by hearing Elisabeth's story. When listening to Elisabeth describing her experiences with stuttering and associated thoughts and feelings I kept thinking about how important openness and knowledge about stuttering is. I therefore hope that many listen to this podcast and that it contributes to raising awareness of stuttering. You can find the podcast here. 

Speech fluency and language skills in children with Down syndrome

Following up our latest blog posts, we also have a new publication on speech fluency and language skills!

EST team members Kari-Anne B. Næss, Hilde Hofslundsengen alongside Egil Nygaard, and Scott Yaruss published about speech fluency and language skills, some months ago, in the Special Issue Down Syndrome: Neuropsychological Phenotype across the Lifespan. 

Participants were a national sample of children with Down syndrome aged six years. The results showed that parent reported much more difficulties with speech fluency in children with Down syndrome than in younger typically developed children (same non-verbal age level). Furthermore, better language skills among the children with Down syndrome were related to less fluency difficulties. The results suggest that speech fluency and language skills should be taken into consideration when planning treatment for children with Down syndrome, perhaps speech and language theraphy that simultaneously aims to improve language skills and fluency.

 

If you want to know more, the full paper can be read here (free): Brain Sciences | Free Full-Text | The Association between Difficulties with Speech Fluency and Language Skills in a National Age Cohort of Children with Down Syndrome (mdpi.com)