Office Hours: The Professor Is In

Research on covert stuttering

From: Ed Feuer
Date: 02 Oct 2012
Time: 11:06:54 -0500
Remote Name: 207.161.157.111

Comments

There is apparently no diagnostic imaging research - and perhaps other research - on covert stuttering because SLPs cannot agree on a definition. On Feb. 20, 2011, Nan Bernstein Ratner, one of the professors here, stated on the Stutt-L listserv: "There is, and I repeat this, NO ACCEPTED definition or diagnostic protocol to diagnose someone as a covert PWS." In that same thread on the same date, she also said: "I repeat, we DO need to do research on covert stuttering, and the first step is to develop a protocol that actually clearly diagnoses it to people's satisfaction." I find this situation nothing short of astounding because people are self-identifying as covert, there's been a whole lot of hurtin' goin' on and all of us overt people have been covert at times to the extent we can get away with it. But Nan is a highly credible source. I'm not an SLP nor do I play one on TV but my layperson's common sense says put some volunteer coverts in a fMRI, tell them to say some feared words for which they'd ordinarily walk a mile to substitute and see what shows up on the screen. By not doing this, you are closing off a very significant area of study. What do the other professors think of this state of affairs? - Ed Feuer edfeuer@mts.net

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Last changed: 10/22/12