Assessing the impact of childhood intervention for stuttering

What is the impact of childhood intervention on those who continue to stutter into adulthood? Many adults have shared their experiences in memoirs, on podcasts, in blogs, etc. and most of those experiences are stories of recovery – not from stuttering, but from the impact of earlier therapy. Parents can benefit from reading these accounts, … read more…

The Stories Beyond Words project: creatively reworking and reclaiming time

Something serendipitous has welled up in my PhD research. An unexpected connection has sparked and fused. This connection is all about time, or rather its disruption, through usurping societal expectations of chronological time. It spans between my research area and the creative approach. This connection is opening up possibilities for thinking creatively around disfluency. The … read more…

A space to reflect

It’s an interesting time for therapists working with stammering.  Not always a comfortable seat at the table when we’re considering the social model of disability with questions about what’s useful and what’s unhelpful, even harmful, in our work, and when our laziest thinking and assumptions are challenged.  The online discussion group ‘Advanced Conversations in Stammering’ … read more…

Fishing for sharks: teenage voices and stuttering

Adolescence is a time of challenge and exploration, on the one hand pushing boundaries and on the other trying to explore possible identities for best fit. As a speech and language therapist, I too struggle sometimes on offering a service that is fit for purpose for teenagers who stutter. I believe in the power of … read more…

The Neurodiversity Paradigm: Shining a light on the problem with normativity, ableism, and the path to neurodivergent-affirming practice

The origins of the ‘normal range’ and the Medical Model In the latter 1800s, Sir Francis Galton, statistician and proponent of eugenics, Darwin’s survival of the fittest and scientific racism, was the first person to apply statistical methods to study human difference, describing the ‘normal distribution’ in human characteristics, determining everything from the average attractiveness … read more…

Stuttering and the social model

Having presented together at the online Oxford Dysfluency Conference in January 2021, we were delighted when our article Stuttering and the social model was accepted for publication in a Special Issue of the Journal of Communication Disorders in February 2022. In accord with Elsevier’s post-print policy, please find the article here: Stuttering and the social model … read more…

Acts of resistance: how one speech and language therapist found a new tribe

What happens when we view speech and language therapy for children who stutter as a celebration of difference rather than a process of chasing fluency? Is it possible to throw a party announcing we stutter, loud and proud? About three years ago I sat in a room with six 10 and 11 year old boys … read more…

The Value in Connecting with Other People who Stutter

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to write a guest blog post for Redefining Stammering. I am an assistant professor and researcher at Western Michigan University in the United States. I also work with people who stutter in my day-to-day life as a supervisor for budding speech therapists and as a co-leader for a … read more…

The eloquence of stuttering: Summary of an odyssey

At first sight, eloquence and stuttering are a mismatch: Eloquence is the art of public speaking; stuttering is typically seen as a pathology that impedes people from speaking. As fluency is deemed the main component of a speech, everything that goes against it is considered a hindrance to the art of being eloquent.  However, what … read more…