Most of the time, my research, teaching, and clinical work are focused on the experiences of people who stutter. I seek to document and diminish the adverse impact that many people who stutter experience as they navigate their stuttering journey.
One of the factors that contributes most to people’s negative experiences with stuttering is the way that other people, such as parents and other caregivers, teachers and other educators, peers, and even strangers, react to stuttering. Ample research, combined with the personal experiences of my many friends and clients who stutter, reinforces the idea that listener reactions to stuttering are generally quite negative. Numerous studies have documented the societal stigma associated with stuttering, as well as the negative attitudes that many different groups of individuals hold toward stuttering and those who stutter.
For this reason, it is necessary to consider these listener reactions if we hope to help people who stutter create and live in a world that is more accepting of their speaking differences.
Stuttering Variability Contributes to Negative Reactions
There are many reasons that people might react negatively to stuttering. In this brief series of blog posts, I will review a few, starting with a topic that is of particular interest to me in my ongoing research, the variability of stuttering
Stuttering varies. Everyone knows that. The amount of stuttering that people experience on the inside or show on the outside changes depending upon the situation in which they are speaking, the specific speaking task in which they are engaged, the conversational partner or listener to whom they are speaking, and more; it also varies at different points in time, within the same day or across days, months, or even years.
Research has shown that this variability in the occurrence of stuttering is frustrating for adults who stutter and for caregivers of children who stutter, and for good reason: it is hard to come to terms with something when it is constantly varying. Although there is much to say about how stuttering variability affects speakers, in this post, I want to focus on how that variability influences conversational partners—and, how variability ultimately contributes to negative interpersonal and societal reactions to stuttering.
Looking at stuttering from an observer’s perspective, it is easy to see why the condition can be confusing. Sometimes, a person who stutters will show disruptions in their speech, but other sometimes they will not. Sometimes, they will speak freely and seemingly effortless, but other times, they will have difficulty talking—and they may even make tense facial expressions or exhibit other behaviors as they try to get their words out. Sometimes they will participate fully in a conversation, but other times they will remain quiet, or they may even say word that don’t quite seem to match what they intended to say. All of these experiences can contribute to a listener’s misunderstandings about stuttering.
They may wonder, for example, if it’s the specific words that a person says that causes them to stutter. But, no, it can’t be that because they have heard the person say the exact same words both with and without stuttering. Is it that they’re nervous? No, it can’t be that either, because they’ve seen the person stutter when they were calm—and they’ve even seen them speak easily in times of pressure!
They may also wonder why a person who stutters doesn’t just “do what they did the other day,” when they appeared to have an easier time speaking. Or, they may have trouble understanding why the speaker had so much trouble introducing themselves just now, when they heard the person say their name easily that same morning! Are they just not trying hard enough? Did they just have a bad speech therapist?
All of these questions, combined with people’s natural tendency to try to explain what they are seeing and hearing, can cause observers to develop confusing misconceptions about stuttering, and these misconceptions contribute to their tendency to judge people who stutter negatively.
How SLPs Can Help
What can we do to help people who stutter and listeners? Most importantly, we can know for ourselves—and explain to other people—that it is normal for people who stutter to experience variability in their stuttering. That is just the nature of stuttering. For many reasons, it will be more apparent at sometimes and less apparent at other times.
Though there may be some ways of predicting when stuttering is likely to occur in a particular situation or on a particular word, there is no way to determine this with certainty. And, even if we could determine it with certainty, that wouldn’t gain us much. It is simply a fact that stuttering varies, and the more that people can accept and come to terms with that, the easier it will be for everyone—speakers and listeners alike.
Helping others understand that stuttering is, at its core, a variable speech difference is not the only way speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can support clients who stutter. However, it is a critical step in establishing realistic expectations for therapy and fostering a comfortable, supportive communication environment.
Next time, I’ll write about one of the other reasons that listeners find stuttering confusing: the many myths that surround the condition. For now, remember that stuttering varies, and that’s okay.