Directions from research in treatment for childhood stuttering - an open seminar

Norwegian speech language therapists have enjoyed a visit from several international clinicians and researchers within the stuttering field, due to Linn Stokke Guttormsen publicly defending her PhD-dissertation. The EST-project group took the opportunity to invite Dr. Elaina Kefalianos, who is also a member of the EST-project group, and Dr. Courtney Bird to present some of their impressive work in an open seminar on Thursday the 27^th of September. They are both experienced clinicians and researchers and have been mentioned in previous posts here on the blog.  

Dr. Elaina Kefalianos and Dr. Courtney Byrd

Firstly, Elaina gave her presentation with the title: Understanding developmental stuttering: Onset to recovery. She took us through some of the findings from the very big pool of data that was collected during the Early Language in Victoria study (ELVS). The study is a prospective, longitudinal study that followed a large community cohort of children from the age of 8-10 months. 11.2 percent of the children were identified as stuttering before the age of 4. Far fewer children than expected, only 6 percent, were identified as recovered from stuttering within the first year after onset. By the age of 7 this number had risen to 67 percent. Few of the children had sought treatment during this time, which is indicative of a large proportion of the children recovering naturally. You can read more about the findings of the study here.

Internationally clinical guidelines state recently that childhood stuttering should always be treated immediately, due to the potential negative impact stuttering might have on an individual child’s social and emotional development. One of Elaina’s most important points was that given that resources are limited, we need to know more about predictors of recovery and persistence in childhood stuttering. In this way we may be better able to prioritize which children should receive which type of treatment and know more about how close to the onset of stuttering it should be offered.

Later on, it was Dr. Byrd’s turn to present some of the work that is being conducted at the Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. Her presentation was titled Navigating the Stereotype Threat of Stuttering. She stated that persons who stutter often are portrayed as nervous and anxious in the public media, even though we know that they as a group do not differ from persons without stuttering. She hypothesized that the origin of this stereotype is partly due to the listeners’ experience when communicating with someone who stutters.

Dr. Byrd’s team has conducted studies on the use of voluntary stuttering and self-disclosure, which are both commonly used strategies in stuttering therapy, but have not had scientific evidence to support them. What they have found is that, if used correctly, voluntary stuttering is regarded by persons who stutters as a helpful strategy. In the case of disclosing that you are a person who stutters, listeners will rate the stuttering as less interfering with communication if done in an assertive and non-apologetic manner. During their two-week intensive treatment program these strategies are taught to all clients, from as young as four years of age, as a way of helping them navigate the stereotype threat that all persons who stutter are faced with. Hence communicative excellence, and not perfectly fluent speech, is the main goal of treatment. If you are interested in seeing more about Courtney`s work, take a look at their web page here.   

Through their respective talks it became evident that both Elaina and Courtney are dedicated and passionate about finding out what actually works in stuttering therapy and how treatment can be made available for persons who stutter of all age groups. The presentations peaked our (already existing) interest in stuttering and fueled several conversations with colleagues over the following days. We are hoping that this is just the first to come of knowledge sharing to Norwegian speech and language therapists, as well as other groups interested in stuttering, through the international collaboration within the EST-project.

From guest writer Ane Hestman Melle for the EST team

Every now and then, the EST team invites guest writers to contribute to the blog. As part of this, todays blog post was written by Ane Hestmann Melle,  speech- language pathologist at Statped Sør-Øst. Attentive readers of the blog will remember Ane as one of our EST-project collaborators joining the writing retreat in Denmark.