1. Biological, psychological or behavioral?
Stuttering (Ambrose, 2004)
Biological, psychological or
behavioral?
For people who stutter it is part of their daily life, but can go away in different circumstances such as:
Singing
Speaking in unison
Talking to babies or pets
But can worsen under pressure and/or stress

2. Biological (Ambrose, 2004)
Biological: in people who don’t stutter part of the auditory association cortex is larger in the left hemisphere than the right, but in some individuals who do stutter there is no difference in size.
A big part of stuttering the is genetic component that affects the fluency-generating system of the brain. BUT scientists still aren’t sure which genes it is that affects it.

3. Psychological (Ambrose, 2004)
Psychological: largely do to the family environment causing stuttering.
- stuttering inhibits unconscious needs, or unacceptable statements of inner thoughts and feelings.
For example, a child wants to communicate but fears saying the wrong thing or not the right thing, which results in the stuttering of their speech.
People who stutter presented higher levels of anxiety, but as a result of the stuttering

4. Treatments for Stuttering: Pharmacological (Boyd, A. , Dworzynski, K
Treatments for Stuttering: Pharmacological (Boyd, A., Dworzynski, K., & Howell, P. (2011)
Does Medicine help in treating stuttering?
Research on Risperidone, Olanzapine, Clonidine, Tiapride, haloperidol, and chlorpromazine to see which had the greatest affect on stuttering.
The use of solely medicine to treat stuttering did not drastically reduce the frequency of disfluency.

5. Treatments for Stuttering: Simplified Treatment (Wagaman, J. R
Treatments for Stuttering: Simplified Treatment (Wagaman, J. R., Miltenberger, R. G., & Arndorfer, R. E. (1993)
Simplified treatment is more of a therapy based approach
Includes 3 factors:
Awareness training: child learns to detect every occurrence of stuttering
Training a response incompatible with stuttering: relaxation and regulation of air flow over the larynx when speaking
Social support: parent’s praise of children’s use of techniques in everyday life

6. Results: Which theory is correct and which treatment is most effective?
Mixture of biological, behavioral and psychological causes
Pharmacological results: a specific medicine didn’t reduce stuttering but a mixture of therapy and medicine
Simplified treatment results: 8 children were treated with this approach and had less than 3% words stuttered
Children were able to notice a difference in stuttering as well as parents and speech therapists
An important aspect of dealing with those who stutter is patience.