Disputation - Linn Stokke Guttormsen

On Friday, 28th of September 2018, Master Linn Stokke Guttormsen from the Department of Special Needs Education defended her doctoral dissertation for the degree of PhD. The title of her PhD thesis is “A multimethod study of the impact of stuttering on children”. Linn was supervised by Professor Kari-Anne Bottegaard Næss and Professor II Charles Hulme, both affiliated at the Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo.

A Norwegian public defence for the degree of PhD is a very formal setting that is open to the public, with ceremonial factors as the Chair of the defence wearing the traditional robe of the faculty and with the original Latin closure. The audience usually comprises colleagues, researchers, family and friends, as well as students, user organizations and whoever might be interested. The disputation is a full day event, consisting of two main parts - a trial lecture (45 minutes) and the defence itself with the two opponents which can last from 2 to 4 hours. The Chair of the defence for Linn was Professor emerita Bente Eriksen Hagtvet from the Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo.

From left: Courtney Byrd, Barry Guitar, Linn S. Guttormsen, Vibeke Grøver, Bente Hagtvet

When the doctoral candidate submits a thesis, the Faculty appoints an adjudication committee. For Linn, the members of the committee were Professor Barry Guitar, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Vermont, USA (the first opponent),

Associate Professor Courtney Byrd, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, USA (the second opponent) and Professor Vibeke Grøver, Department of Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo, as the third member and the committee's coordinator.

The adjudication committee compiles a written decision with comments concerning if the dissertation is worth defending, based on the content of the thesis and the fulfillment of other mandatory elements for completing a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Education. If the answer is yes, there is approximately a six week time span between the candidate receiving the decision and the date of the public defence. It is also the duty of the committee to set the title for the trial lecture, which the candidate has a two week period to develop. Linns trial lecture covered the following topic: "Review the evidence for treatment of preschoolers who stutter. Include in the discussion the possible influence of children's communication attitudes and temperament."

Linn appeared calm and presented a well-structured lecture covering the areas of stuttering characteristic of preschoolers and a comparison of the direct and indirect treatment approaches published internationally. She included a systematic review addressing frequency of treatment studies within each of the evidence phases in research. Therefore, one of the take home messages concluded that evidence so far is rather limited due to the small number of studies and methodology challenges within them, thereby directing future research goals.

The committee was satisfied with the trail lecture and hence, the candidate proceeded to  defense the thesis itself. Linns thesis consists of 3 articles and an extended abstract, called kappe in Norwegian. You can find a summary of the PhD here: Summary

The first opponent, Barry Guitar, summarized the PhD thesis , contextualizing the content to the history iof the field and ongoing discussion in clinical and research experience. In his following discussion with Linn, he highlighted the importance of the reactivity of children to their stuttering which for some may occur from the very first hour after onset. Consequently, he asked challenging questions addressing both clinical and research aspects of evaluation and self-reports, as well as Linns personal treatment experience and general clinical implications. This was done within a warm, reflective conversational style that was also continued by the second opponent, Courtney Byrd. She addressed the responsibility for SPLs to demystify the term stuttering for our clients, as well as providing them with good general communication skills in addition to, for example, fluency approaches.

Both opponents included personal stories and showed a strong connection to the clinical field. In this way, the dissertation provided not only interesting discussion points for Linn, but also information for all members of the audience. The opponents challenged Linn in a positive and encouraging way, following up on her responses to further extensions. Linn on her side contributed through honest and reflected answers, showing her knowledge of the area and her respect for the opponents and the research field.

The public defence was concluded by the chair with the famous and traditional words: Disputatio peracta est!

Linn is hereby the first Norwegian SLP to achieve a doctoral degree in stuttering – and to our knowledge, may even be the first Norwegian PhD within stuttering - independent of their scientific field!  Congratulations!

We are very proud to welcome her as a post doc into the EST research group!

From the EST-team