Stuttering Is Treatable, Not Curable


Fau Clinic Helps People Overcome Speech Disorders

June 10, 1995|By LISETTE HILTON Special to the Sun-Sentinel

As a child, Dale Williams feared having to recite what was on the classroom blackboard. His stuttering embarrassed him.

When Williams' mother took him to the pediatrician, he told the family not to worry - the stuttering would go away.

Today, at 35 and after six years of therapy, Williams has his doctorate and works as a speech pathologist and assistant professor in Florida Atlantic University's Communication Disorders Clinic in Boca Raton. The clinic is a major part of the FAU master's degree program for communication disorders.

Williams, who wrote his thesis on stuttering, said it is a harmful myth that stuttering goes away with age.

A disorder of speech fluency made up of part-word repetitions and prolongations, stuttering affects about 2.4 million adults and children, according to the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists.

Usually, stuttering starts in childhood, between ages 2 and 6. It also can result from a stroke or closed-head injury.

Sufferers are just as intelligent as their non-stuttering counterparts, but the stigma of not being able to control their speech leads them to question their own intelligence, experts say. Life-long effects can range from mild inconvenience to social paralysis.

"Stuttering is a very isolating disorder because it interferes with speech -the very thing we use to express who we are," said John Ahlbach, executive director of the National Stuttering Project. His group, based in California, provides information and support to adults and children who stutter.

"We don't know why we do it. Some days are good and some days are bad," Ahlbach said.

"It's like having green hair, but not having green hair all the time and never knowing when you'll have green hair. People feel there's something wrong with them, and the tragedy is they blame themselves. Our group's message is to let people know that they are not alone."

The National Stuttering Project publishes a monthly newsletter, Letting GO, and distributes brochures, books, videotapes and other materials to educate people about stuttering.

The organization, with local chapters around the country, also promotes treatment programs, and supports or particpates in regional workshops. It helped to establish a yearly National Stuttering Awareness Week to bring the problem of stuttering into focus and dispel myths.

While the cause of stuttering is unknown, heredity and neurological factors might be to blame, speech therapists agree. Stress sometimes exaggerates the condition, but those who stutter sometimes speak more fluently during stress.

One of the most accepted theories today is that stuttering is caused by vocal chords that lock together in spasm, West Palm Beach speech pathologist Sheree Syden said.

Syden said that although stuttering is not curable, it does respond to therapy and people can learn to break the habit. Treatment includes delayed auditory feedback and desensitization to creating a fear of stuttering.

Parents who suspect their children are not progressing in their speech patterns should take their children, even as young as 3, to a speech pathologist.

"That way we can tell if a child's stuttering is normal," Syden said. "If it's not, we counsel the parents on how to act with their children. It's rare that we counsel children than young unless it's severe."

According to Williams, stuttering modification therapy helps patients to gain control so that they speak more fluently. This type of therapy emphasizes getting people to stop feeling embarrassed when they do stutter.

Rarely is a stutterer cured, or speech made fluent to the point that a patient no longer has to think about the problem. Even the most successfully treated stutterers constantly need to think about being fluent.

Williams and Syden are among the area's speech pathologists who offer programs for stutterers. The National Stuttering Project also can provide a list of local professionals who can help.

The FAU Communication Disorders Clinic offers evaluations for $150. If needed, treatments are offered on a per-semester basis: a session once a week for 10 weeks is $200; two sessions a week for 10 weeks is $400. For more information about FAU's program, call 367-2258 or 367-2259.

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