From: Lacey Burns/ Lacey_burns_00@subr.edu Southern University and A&M College
Date: 17 Oct 2012
Time: 23:04:58 -0500
Remote Name: 184.46.90.196
There are absolutly many definitions provided in the field of Speech Language Pathology for stuttering. The author's of this essay explain the importance including overt and underlying characteristics of stuttering in the definition of stuttering. By only reviewing surface definitions of stuttering, the reader, stutterer, or clinician do not have a true idea of what stuttering is; therefore, clinical practices can possibly suffer and the stutterer will suffer because of the lack of understanding of what stuttering is. For example, a SLP may provide what she thinks is a great therapeutic approach that focuses soley on the speech characteristics of stuttering to a stutterer, while, in turn, the stutterer could benefit more from an apporach that focuses on both the underlying and overt characteristics of stuttering. The definition of stuttering should include the lack of integration of the underlying processes required for effortless speech. This is so because if one only describes overt characteristics of stuttering over the underlying features, it is not completely representative of stuttering because the overt behaviors are not always associated with stuttering. Overall, this paper makes for an informative, great read!