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From: Nan Bernstein Ratner
Date: 16 Oct 2012
Time: 12:05:23 -0500
Remote Name: 129.2.25.203
In medicine, they distinguish between CAUSES and TRIGGERS. I would not ever contradict a parent who feels that something contributed to the onset of stuttering, although as an author of a text, I can tell them that the research has not identified most of the hypotheses I hear (including the tickling stuff), which means that their anecdotal account does not seem to account for stuttering across the general population. However, as in medicine/health, adverse events might very well trigger the manifestation of a problem - many childhood conditions come on after the child has been stressed by illness, for example, even if the illness itself is not suspected as a cause of the disorder. The nice thing about talking about triggers is that it starts a conversation about the most likely best response - many parents feel guilty thinking that something in the kid's upbringing or experiences CAUSED the stuttering. If these things are viewed as random TRIGGERS, then it becomes clear to most parents I talk to that one could not really isolate the child from all possible triggering experiences. You'd have to wrap them in cotton batting, put them on a shelf and deprive them of most of life's experiences.