March 13, 2019
Understanding the Mystery of Stuttering
From the outside, stuttering seems simple. The listener hears a disruption in speech like the repetition or extension of part of a word, or sees that the speaker is unable to speak for a short period. Many people experience stuttering as children, but most outgrow it.
From the inside, stuttering is vastly more complex. It is a condition that can have lasting effects. Why some recover from stuttering while others don’t remains a mystery—one that has brought determined and curious researchers to the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University.
The department boasts the largest number of faculty and students researching stuttering of any university in the country and provides a richly collaborative research environment for those interested in the field.
"[Stuttering] is not an emotional disorder — though it can have serious emotional consequences — and it is not just a bad habit that people pick up," says J. Scott Yaruss, professor and clinical speech-language pathologist in the department.
An Inside Perspective
For doctoral students Seth Tichenor and Caryn Herring, stuttering is more than what they research; it is something they experience in their daily lives. Tichenor and Herring grew up with pressure to actively try to prevent or hide their stuttering, and to strive to be as fluent as possible. Even as children, both were shocked by the lack of knowledge about stuttering in their childhood therapists.
"The illusion of not stuttering isn’t the same as not stuttering," says Tichenor. “Stuttering has affected the decisions I’ve made in life, but looking back I also see the good things that being someone who stutters has taught me."
Research has documented many cases of discrimination toward those who stutter, making it important to raise awareness and improve understanding about what the disorder truly is. More than 70 million people worldwide stutter, including more than 3 million Americans.
"Acceptance is a journey," says Tichenor. "I wanted to save kids from the crappy therapy I had as a child. The original reason for going to grad school wasn’t great, but the outcomes have been awesome. I met my wife because of it. I wouldn’t be the same person I am today if I didn’t stutter."
Throughout the years, Tichenor and Herring have continued to grow through their experiences and pursue answers to the puzzling questions that stuttering presents.
"My goals changed from wanting to be as fluent as possible to embracing the way I speak and ensuring that stuttering doesn’t hold me back," says Herring. “I was disappointed by the lack of research and understanding of how people who stutter can desensitize themselves to stuttering-related fears and how they can accept the way they talk. The research I am doing, and what inspired me to go into this field, is to better understand the adverse thoughts and feelings people who stutter might have and how we can help reduce them."
A Glimpse of What’s Ahead
To help shed light on the enigma of stuttering, Yaruss and Tichenor are conducting the largest survey ever among people who stutter, with 400 respondents and counting.
What makes the survey unique is its focus on the speaker’s perspective. Previous research has emphasized the experience of the listener, limiting the understanding of what happens when someone stutters. More recent research has found that, for the speaker, the sensation of stuttering begins internally as an anticipation of difficulty speaking before it is experienced externally. Yaruss and Tichenor’s survey seeks to further explore this perspective.
Yaruss also wants to bring virtual reality into the mix. He says it’s difficult to capture the true experience of stuttering in a therapy session because of how unpredictable situations are outside a therapy room. As a result, Yaruss is investigating whether VR can be used to create controlled conditions for those who stutter to diminish speaking anxieties—an idea that has been discussed in the field but hasn’t yet been explored fully.
"This is a particularly exciting time to study stuttering, in part due to recent advances in genetics and neuroimaging that have shown us that stuttering likely involves specific genetic mutations," says Yaruss.
Adapted from a story from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Video and concept by Dan Hartley, text by Kristina Pierson.