The end-product of behavioural stuttering therapy: three decades of denaturing the disorder

Abstract

Issue: The state of stuttering therapy continues to be of great concern in the field of speech-language pathology. Despite decades of research and clinical practical, stuttering is still treated by ineffective and inefficient means.

Proposal: Our research group suggests that therapy failures stem from the use behavioural approaches; procedures that have resulted in only temporary and unnatural alleviation from the symptomatology by masking the disorder. These procedures 'denature' the disorder and induce pseudofluency rather than true fluency. It is proposed that in order to truly provide relief to those who stutter, professionals need to view both the overt and covert components of the disorder from the standpoint of attaining true fluency. Only then can the true syndrome-like nature of stuttering be addressed. In order to achieve true fluency the use of stuttering inhibitors must be incorporated such as choral speech and its permutations to derive natural sounding, stable and effortless speech in those who stutter.

Conclusion: By doing so, the goal is to not only derive stable and natural-sounding speech, but also to help remove such factors as the expectancy, anticipation and the fear of stuttering that generally continue to shackle most people who stutter following behavioural therapy.