The mission to unlock the mystery of stuttering
Stuttering can have lasting social, emotional and mental health impacts. A new study aims to pinpoint causes and treatments.
It’s not unusual to trip over your words every now and then, but for those who stutter, verbal communication can be a struggle.
A motor speech impairment that impacts the fluency and rhythm of verbal communication, stuttering behaviours include blocking (inability to initiate sound), word repetition and sound prolongation.
It affects around one in 100 Australians and the social, emotional and mental health repercussions can impact quality of life.
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What causes stuttering?
University of Queensland speech pathology lecturer Dr Adriana Penman says while the cause of stuttering remains largely unknown, neural processing breakdowns in the brain are a large contributor to speech disruption.
“(People who stutter) know exactly what they want to say but they just can’t get it out at that very time they need it,” Dr Penman says.
A major international Genetics of Stuttering study aims to locate the genes within stutterers that make them susceptible to developing the disorder.
Chief study investigator Professor Angela Morgan tells House of Wellness TV show that up to 70 per cent of stutterers share the condition with a relative.
“It’s really much higher than for many other speech or language disorders,” Prof Morgan says.
Dr Penman encourages families to come forward and consider participating in the stuttering study.
“Everyone has a right to communicate,” she says. “The more people that volunteer, the closer we may come to establishing what that link is with genetics and stuttering.”
Early intervention is key for children
Onset usually begins between two and four years of age.
Treating children while still in the early stages of language development is important to help prevent it from becoming a lifelong issue.
“Around one in 10 children experience a stutter in the pre-school years but around 80 per cent will recover either naturally or with therapy,” Prof Morgan says.
She hopes the genetics study will assist in developing new therapies for those who struggle with stuttering and offer “a source of hope” for affected families.
How is stuttering treated?
There are two key forms of evidence-based treatment.
The Lidcombe Program targets very young children to eradicate stuttering all together.
Parents are taught how to perform the treatment at home and progress is monitored by a pathologist each week.
The Lidcombe Program largely focuses on direct, positive praise of the child’s speech without stutter.
Dr Penman notes when children are praised they seek more of the same behaviour, especially when it comes from someone influential like a parent.
“Children’s brains at that young age are so malleable,” she says.
“We can retrain things to help create those links to have a fluent pathway.”
The second treatment is smooth speech therapy.
Often used for older children, teens and adults, it aims to reform the way a person speaks to prevent stutter.
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August 21-27, 2022, is Speech Pathology Week and is celebrating good communication, better communities.
Written by Chloé Chiappa.
