Stuttering Theories

Joseph Sheehan’s Theory

Approach avoidance conflict [1918-1938]

Iceberg of stuttering: part you see is a SMALLER part of the problem, the core behaviors, the LARGER part of the problem is the emotional load that the PWS carries all the time

• “the fear of stuttering is stuttering itself”

• “you have to stutter your way through stuttering”

*Learning to accept though you may not like it

Understanding, acceptance, pseudostuttering, disclosure, modification

THERAPIES

Dealing with guilt & shame

Avoidance reduction therapy

disclosure of stuttering

Charles Van Riper, Ph.D

[1905-1994] Father of speech pathology

Developed Stuttering Modification Therapy (1936-1958)

• Reducing the fears and anxieties of adult stutterers, and added methods to modify the “core behaviors” of stuttering, to make them less physically stressful

Identification, desensitization, modification, stabilization

Core & secondary behaviors

Wendell Johnson

(1950’s - 1980s)

• Diagnosogenic or Semantogenic in early 1940’s

• calling attention to a child’s normal hesitations (repetitions could precipitate stuttering

• Therapists swayed by this theory declined to work directly with young stutterers, fearing that therapy could worsen the affliction

disproved (children recognize struggle)

C. Woodruff Starkweather

• Demands & capacities model 1990

• analyzes the internal and external factors that influence the production of fluent and non-fluent speech in children

• CWS possess genetically influenced tendencies for disfluent speech

1. motoric 2. linguistic 3. socio-emotional 4. cognitive

Capacities: inherited tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, and perceptions which may influence child’s ability to speak

Demands: may be put on the child on his/her behalf or through other listeners (ex) rapid rate of speech, speech continuity demands may change