Read: Study finds that adults who stutter don't stutter when they're alone

Summary of https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-adults-stutter-dont-theyre.html, accessed friday 11 februari  2022, 13:35 

Study finds that adults who stutter don't stutter when they're alone

Study by NYU Steinhardt Professor Eric S. Jackson finds that the perception of being heard makes a big difference in wether a person stutters.

Anecdotal reports note this, but it had not been systematically investigated. It is called the talk-alone-effect. The difficulty in investigating this lies in creating conditions in which people believe they are alone.

The research involve 24 adults and five different conditions:

• conversational speech
• reading aloud
• private speech believing nobody listens
• repeating this private speech
• spontaneous speech

They created the private speech condition by giving them a challenging computer programming task, which elicits private speech. They were deceived in thinking they were alone, and moreover told that people who talk out loud to themselves perform better on the programming task. In the other speech modes they spoke to other people and knew it.

According to Jackson, this provides evidence that stuttering is not just a speech problem but has at its core a strong social component. The possibility that someone listens can make the speaker vulnerable to perception and judgment. When private, there is no such social component. 

Future research could examine private speech in young children, giving insight at what stages social considerations influence stuttering.

------------------- My thoughts on this article

It seems obvious to me that people who stutter suffer from some kind of convidence issue, or anxiety, shame and so on. Negative reactions like bullying and ridicule towards a child from other children or even adults will create a vicious circle. So yes, when they think they are alone it stands to reason they do not need to be afraid or need convidence when speaking. My father who stutters, did not do so on the (rare) occasions when he was really furious, which is also a condition where I would expect a person to overcome a lack of confidence, or fear.

Given that it seems so obvious, I am truly amazed that it has taken until 2022 to set up an experiment like this. My father who is in his eighties has stuttered all his live, and has had numerous anti-stutter therapies. They focused on breathing exercises, or an earpiece device that zooms when the wearer speaks. I think this article strongly suggests that psychotherapy that focuses on processing events that destroyed a child's self-confidence or self-esteem should work better. And subsequently building up confidence or the underlying self-awareness, authenticity and self-esteem should really provide hope in solving stuttering, provided there is not something physically wrong with their body that prevents speech. With people who are able to speak without trouble, thinking they are alone, this is of course the case.