What is stuttering? - defining stuttering from the speaker's viewpoint

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Stuttering and anxiety

From: Ann Packman
Date: 13 Oct 2008
Time: 00:38:08 -0500
Remote Name: 129.78.64.101

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Hi Mark, As you know, we have been conducting research into anxiety and stuttering at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre for some time now. We are fortunate to have Assoc. Professor Ross Menzies on our team. Ross is a clinical psychologist with extensive credentials in the management of anxiety (see www.rossmenzies.com). In 2004 our team published a landmark study that distinguished between social anxiety and general anxiety in PWS. We have since conducted trials of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for anxiety with PWS, and the promising results will be published soon. We currently have three PhD students who are psychology graduates. One is looking at the age at which social anxiety starts to develop in PWS. Another is developing and trialing an on-line CBT program for PWS which, we hope, will be a useful adjunct to behavioural speech therapy. The third is looking at whether social anxiety disorder (social phobia) and/or other psychological problems affect how well PWS do with behavioural speech therapy. We have also developed a useful tool for identifying social anxiety called Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs About Stuttering (UTBAS). An article on this is “In Press” with the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. We are hoping that the results of our research will provide the evidence that SLPs sorely need in this area, and that this will give them more confidence when working with PWS to address the social anxiety that is so often is a part of the disorder of stuttering. Best regards, Ann


Last changed: 10/13/08