Dale Williams - Stuttering Awareness Day

Speaker 1 00:04

With information on the latest developments in assistive technology and initiatives, from the studios of 2RPH in Sydney, RPH Australia brings you AbleQuest. 

For most of us, when we go to speak, we have a thought, take a breath and speak fluently. For those who stutter, it's not so simple. Words get tangled, consonants repeated, and the harder they try, the more difficult it becomes. It's also difficult for the listener, and the natural inclination is to fill the gap. But the best advice, according to today's guest, is just shut up and listen. 

October 22 is International Stuttering Awareness Day, so it's appropriate and timely that today's guest is a specialist in fluency disorders, Professor Dale Williams, Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Sciences at Florida Atlantic University in the US. He's an expert in stuttering and is a stutterer himself who managed to overcome his vocal challenges. He's authored many works on stuttering, including academic, comedy, and children's books. Elaine Wziontek spoke to Professor Williams via Zoom at his home in Florida.

Speaker 2 01:24

Today, we're talking to Professor Dale Williams, who's Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Sciences at Florida, Atlantic University. And he's an expert in stuttering. And we're looking at promoting International Stuttering Awareness Day, October the 22nd. So Professor Dale, can we start just briefly? Do we know what causes stuttering and why it often goes away by the time a child goes to school?

Speaker 3 01:55

First of all, thank you for having me on your show. As for stuttering, the short answer to your question is - nobody knows. The longer answer is, there seem to be multiple factors at play. At its core, it has to be a neurological difference of some sort. Small children have brains that are plastic, that is they're still forming. They can recover from certain conditions, certain differences. They just operate a little bit differently. And I think that's why if you see spontaneous recovery, it's very likely to happen in the preschool years and probably within the first year post onset.

Speaker 2 02:48

So how important is early intervention? Do you know if a child's going to grow out of it or do you need early intervention if they're still stuttering when they're four?

Speaker 3 02:56

Early intervention is crucial. There's a lot of research being done on spontaneous recovery, but there's not really any sort of rule of thumb where it's like, OK, if the kid scores this on this test, then he has to be evaluated or he's going to recover, or there's nothing that definitive. What I would say to parents is, if you suspect that your child is stuttering, you're probably right. Listeners in general, certainly including parents, are very good at hearing the presence of stuttering. They may not be able to define it or identify every instance, but if a kid is stuttering, they're going to be able to know that something is different with the kid's speech. 

They can probably wait a few months post onset before an evaluation to see if it's just one of those things that's going to go away quickly. I don't think I would wait much longer than that, and I always tell parents, you can come back in six weeks, eight weeks, 10 weeks, whatever it is, unless the child's speech is really starting to drive you crazy. In that case, let's get them evaluated.

Speaker 2 04:20

So I understand that you were a stutterer as a child - what was that like?

Speaker 3 04:24

Yeah, actually, I still am. As a child, I think the usual progression, it's a difficult thing in school. Then you hit the middle school years, around age 10 or so, 10 to 13, and you try to hide it. Every middle schooler wants to be in the middle of the centre row and go unnoticed. You don't want to stand out to something that you probably perceive as a weakness, and so you do everything you can to hide it, which usually comes back to haunt you later on. Stuttering in class, I can remember peers laughing at me. I can remember teachers laughing. Unfortunately, it is part of the deal, growing up with a stutter.

Speaker 2 05:23

Are there some misconceptions with stuttering? Are there some dumb questions that people ask or suggest?

Speaker 3 05:31

Oh my, yes. Yes, there are many questions and pieces of advice. Someone begins to stutter, you know, they'll get a Slow down, very common one, Take a deep breath then say it - you know, obviously anybody who stutters has thought of that stuff first, it doesn't work. I guess it's an area where nobody really thinks our experts, everyone's opinion is equal. Probably my favorite one: Just think about what you want to say first and then say it. Like we're just out there saying random words until this guy came along and said, No, prepare what you're going to say first.

People will tell us that they stutter too sometimes, they don't. Do children sometimes stutter for attention? No, that's not the kind of attention any kid really wants. It's not that uncommon for people to stutter on their names. And so I think everyone who stutters has, you know, as a struggle introducing themselves - they've heard, Did you forget your name? Yeah. And then sometimes if you're not stuttering much, people will point that out to you.
You know, you've hardly stuttered at all today. Like we should be glad they're meeting their high standards.

Speaker 2 06:57

This sounds a bit patronising in a way, doesn't it?

Speaker 3 06:59

It feels that way when you're on the other end of it as well.

Speaker 2 07:03

So what can family and friends do to help?

Speaker 3 07:07

One of the quotes that's been attributed to me numerous times from the movie When I Stutter is, just shut up and listen. And that really is good advice for any listeners, including parents, including friends, including siblings. Don't try to give advice. Don't interrupt. Don't try to finish your loved one's sentences. Don't make gestures to try to make him hurry. The best thing you can do for him is let him talk. And I say him because it's mostly a male condition. It's to let him finish what he has to say. Let him know that the content of his speech is important to you, not just the way he's saying it.

Speaker 2 08:03

Mm hmm. Sounds like good advice whether you're stutter or not. Well, we should all remember to to shut up and listen. There you go. You mentioned a film, or was it a documentary - When I Stutter? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 3 08:18

Yeah, it's a documentary. It was written, directed, and produced by John Gomez and it's been entered in film festivals around the world and it's taken home a lot of awards. It follows probably about 20 different people who stutter and covers topics from treatment, to dating, to starting families, to school. It's a really nice piece of work. It's very human and I think it really shows the extent of stuttering. I think a lot of people see stuttering as, OK, you have one to one and a half second breaks of speech. What's the big deal? There's a lot more to it than that, and I think you come away from that movie with a much greater understanding of it.

Speaker 2 09:20

Great. And you've also written books, and I can see we're doing this interview by Zoom, and I can see a very colorful backdrop behind you. Can you tell us something about one of the books that you've written?

Speaker 3 09:32

Yeah. Well, this backdrop is from a children's book. It's called They Can't Be Seen Who Couldn't Squawk. The artwork was actually done by a colleague of mine at Florida Atlantic. Her name is Susanna Brown, and she's an amazing artist. And it was actually published by The Brainery, which is an Australian publisher. And I've written three books for one of them as a textbook, one of them is a workbook for adults, and then the children's book. And then I've written three other books on stuttering. And all of them, if anyone wants to check them out, all of them are available at hearsayresources.com.

Speaker 2 10:19

hear say resources dot com - and the name of the children's book again about squawking, about birds, was it?

Speaker 3 10:25

It's called They Can't Be Seen Who Couldn't Squawk.

Speaker 2 10:28

They Can't Be Seen Who Couldn't Squawk.

Speaker 3 10:31

Yeah, it's for children - at preschool, maybe early school age, and it's all written in rhyme, and it goes through the entirety of the early stuttering experience. Parents identifying it, getting bad advice from other people, the kids starting school, getting teased, finally finding some people who are like him and learning to accept that he's a little different from his peers.

Speaker 2 11:03

So Professor Dale Williams, we can't end the interview without just including something about research, since you're at university. Does the latest research suggest that we can cure a stuttering or do we manage it?

Speaker 3 11:19

Manage it would be the quick answer to that one. There's not any sort of universal cure. There's a lot of research on treatments that are designed to have people talk stutter-free. That's only one kind of treatment, by the way. There's research on pharmaceutical agents that could help, electronic devices that could help, but there isn't anything universal. They haven't found anything where they can say, OK, research has shown if you do this, you're not going to stutter anymore.

That's one of the reasons why there's such an emphasis on acceptance, on just you can't sit around and wait for a cure. You've got things to say. That's the bottom line to all treatment, in my opinion, is say what you want to say. Even if you sometimes stutter, you've got things to say, say them.

Speaker 2 12:29

That sounds terrific. Well, you can be a success, can't you, if you're a stutterer. I mean, there are very famous people. I can think of, I think Winston Churchill and Joe Biden. And there was an actor who died recently, as at James Earl Jones. Apparently he was a stutterer.

Speaker 3 12:44

Yes. And yeah, there have been athletes who stutter. You mentioned politicians, actors, public speakers. So, yeah, a lot of walks of life where people heavily rely on their voices. And, you know, they stutter, and they just do what they want to do.

Speaker 2 13:11

Well, thank you very much for your time today. And I think if people want to get those books and find out more, thebrainery.com is one resource in Australia.

Speaker 3 13:21

Yeah, yeah, the Brainery and also Hearsay, available on both.

Speaker 2 13:27

Thank you. So that was Professor Dale Williams, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication Sciences from Florida Atlantic University, telling us about stuttering and that we should all be aware of International Stuttering Awareness Day, October 22. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 13:47

Thank you, Elaine.

Speaker 1 13:52

You have just been listening to AbleQuest, a program that looks at developments in assistive technology and initiatives. From Elaine Wziontek and Barbara Sullivan, thank you for listening, and goodbye till next program.