Stuttering

There are different types of stuttering, including developmental (from childhood) and acquired (occurring due to a neurological condition such as stroke or brain injury). Regardless of the type of stuttering, there are strategies and support that speech therapy can provide. Stuttering may lead to feelings of anxiety about speaking and avoidance of social situations, but it doesn’t have to. If stuttering is having a negative impact on your life, speech therapy can help. 

I have significant experience working with teens and adults who stutter, and I provide evidence-based therapy reflective of current clinical knowledge. I have training in the ISTAR Comprehensive Stuttering Program as well as the Avoidance Reduction Therapy for Stuttering (ARTS ®) program. I also recently participated in a workshop from the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research, and I incorporate elements in my therapy from their CARE™ model.

Frequently Asked Questions
about Stuttering:

• Is it possible for me (or my child) to overcome stuttering?

This is a tricky question to answer, because people mean different things by “overcome.” If by “overcome” you mean “stop stuttering,” then the answer is pretty straightforward: the research tells us that if a child is still stuttering beyond the ages of 7-8, it is likely that they will continue to stutter.

If by “overcome” you mean overcoming the fear and anxiety someone may experience with stuttering, which is negatively impacting their participation in all that life has to offer, then yes, I think that is possible. My goal is for my clients to be able to say what they want to say, and feel comfortable and confident doing so, whether or not they stutter.

• Hang on… my child is 12 years old, so if they’re just going to continue to stutter, then what’s the point of speech therapy?

Speech therapy can be really important in helping your child to develop self-advocacy skills, resilience, confidence, comfort, and enjoyment of speaking. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of stigma associated with stuttering, and as your child grows up, they may face misinformed comments, teasing, and even bullying. It’s important to prepare them in a way that boosts their self-esteem, and helps them to feel confident in responding to hurtful remarks, or educating others on stuttering. Speech therapy can also help them reduce any anxiety they may feel about speaking situations, or behaviours they may do in order to avoid stuttering.

• I’ve stuttered all my life and I’m 40 years old. Is there any point in me doing speech therapy now?

It’s never too late! If you feel like stuttering is negatively impacting your life in some way, then it doesn’t matter how old you are, we can work together to figure out how to change that.

• Are there strategies you can teach me that I can use to make my speech more fluent?

Yes, but: for many people, these strategies are not reliable, and they often don’t work when the person who stutters most wants them to. They take a large amount of cognitive effort, and practice using them in every environment you plan to use them in. They also may not sound as natural as you would like them to, because they are creating fluency in a different way than people who are naturally fluent do. The techniques usually result in a kind of fluency we can call “effortful fluency” (the term comes from Chris Constantino) — this type of fluency does not come spontaneously to the person, and there is no guarantee that it ever will.

Additionally, the use of strategies to increase fluency necessarily involves paying more attention to your speech, and for some people who stutter, doing that actually leads to more stuttering.

I think it’s important for the person who stutters to be aware of these factors, and for us to take them into consideration as we determine the direction of therapy. Sometimes teaching fluency-related strategies may be appropriate, but other times there may be better ways for us to work together to help you achieve your overarching goals.

• I’ve been to a bunch of speech therapists before, and none of the fluency-shaping or stuttering modification techniques we used ever really worked for me. Can you offer me something different?

You’ve come to the right place! If you’re sick of constantly thinking about your speech, or the fluency-related strategies you’ve been introduced to in the past just aren’t working for you and you’re ready for a change, I can support you. This might involve working on reducing your anxiety and avoidance, increasing your ability to advocate for yourself, becoming more comfortable with stuttering openly, and more.

The above quote is from Alex Daman, Blank Center for Stuttering participant. Check out the “When I Talk, I Stutter” video from the Blank Center.