Stammering: What Research Is Telling Us
by Professor Pam Enderby, Bristol Stammering Research Project.
Published by the British Stammering Association. 28 pages.

The literature on stammering is vast, going back for centuries. Thousands of articles and books have been published on the nature and treatment of the disorder. Only around the second quarter of the 20th century did scientific methodology and experimental procedures begin to be applied to research in stammering. Since then, there has been steady progress in our knowledge of human psychology, physiology, and neurology, in the statistical analysis of data, and in the sophistication of laboratory instrumentation. We have accumulated a mountain of data about stammering, and we still are not sure what it means. Professor Enderby tries to find out what research is telling us, but she also states (quite correctly) in her Foreword to her booklet that "Research very rarely comes up with answers; it often helps us to define the question more clearly." A big problem is that research tells us all sorts of things, some of them contradictory. Nonetheless, we are gradually refining and defining our questions more clearly, making them more amenable to experimental verification. At least we no longer ask such unanswerable questions as "Is stammering a curse laid upon us as punishment for our sins?".

It is a formidable task to select any given number of research studies that yield the most valid, reliable, clinically useful conclusions about the nature and treatment of stammering. It requires courage verging on temerity. Just try to get any two speech pathologists to agree on such a list of studies! The amount of bloodshed that would ensue is inversely proportional to the number of studies on the list. If the list could include 500 studies, there would be some minor grumbling about what to include and what to leave out. If the list were limited to 100 studies, the differences of opinion would be much sharper, with black looks, muttered threats and a few drawn swords. But if these speech scientists were forced to agree on a single most significant study of stammering that has ever been done, there would shortly be only one survivor standing proudly amid the carnage - he who successfully championed the cause of the study he know was the best. No matter how he knew it. Maybe he just happened to be the fastest on the draw.

Professor Enderby has selected 50 references on which she bases her summary of what research is telling us about stammering. She is to be applauded for her effort, and she thereby joins the few other speech pathologists who have undertaken a similar task. At the forefront of these authorities are Charles Van Riper (The Treatment of Stuttering [1972]; The Nature of Stuttering [1982] and Oliver Bloodstein (Handbook on Stuttering [1987]).

But the years go by swiftly and scientific knowledge increases exponentially. It is high time that the record on stammering research be brought up to date, and that present-day clinicians and researchers, as well as stammerers, be kept informed about the latest findings. Pam Enderby and all others involved in the Bristol Stammering Research Project are playing an important role in its quest for improvement in the effectiveness of therapy for stammerers. I wish the Project every success.

Reviewed by J. David Williams PhD, Professor Emeritus, Communications Disorders, Northern Illinois University, in the Spring 1997 issue of 'Speaking Out'.

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