Dr Dane Isaacs and Heather Wilkinson
Cape Town - One October 22, the world celebrated International Stuttering Awareness Day.
International Stuttering Awareness Day (Isad) is a day held each year to create awareness about issues affecting people who stutter, but also to educate the public about the struggles, discrimination, oppression people who stutter encounter at various levels of society.
Despite these efforts, people who stutter continue to be one of the most oppressed and marginalised groups in society.
We believe one of the reasons for this phenomenon is the oppressive communication practices that continue to dominate various spheres of society.
Wherever you go there is a demand for fluent speech; may it be at school, university, the workspace - fluent speech is identified ad the expected and acceptable way of communication.
For many people who stutter, these speaking demands are not often attainable because of their dysfluent speech.
As a result, people who stutter experience regular discrimination, ridicule and prejudice at various levels of society. In effect, people who stutter are “silenced” – speaking becomes a negative and fearful event, best avoided where possible.
How do we undo these oppressive and discriminatory communication practices? Although this is a complex issue, we believe one of the ways is to debunk the persistent myths that still exist around stuttering.
Here are some of them:
- Myth: People who stutter are not clever.
- Reality: There is no link whatsoever between stuttering and intelligence.
- Myth: It helps to tell a person to “take a deep breath before talking,” “just relax” or “think about what you want to say first.”
- Reality: This advice only makes a person more self-conscious, making the stuttering worse. It is more helpful to listen patiently and to use slow and clear speech yourself.
- Myth: It helps to pour cold water or give a person a fright.
- Reality: This is clearly an old wives’ tale and may make stuttering worse.
- Myth: Stuttering can be “caught” through imitation or by hearing another person stutter.
- Reality: You can’t “catch” stuttering. No one knows the exact causes of stuttering, but recent research indicates that family history (genetics), neuromuscular development, and the child’s environment, including family dynamics, all play a role in the onset of stuttering.
- Myth: Nervousness causes stuttering.
- Reality: Nervousness does not cause stuttering. Nor should we assume that people who stutter are prone to be nervous, fearful, anxious, or shy. They have the same full range of personality traits as those who do not stutter.
- Myth: Stress causes stuttering.
- Reality: As mentioned above, many complex factors are involved. Stress is not the cause, but it certainly can aggravate stuttering.
- Myth: Tickling a baby causes stuttering.
- Reality: Not all children who have been tickled stutter!
- Myth: Stuttering is funny.
- Reality: Stuttering is no joke, and yet people who stutter are often laughed at, teased and bullied. The effort and struggle to speak is real and so is the fear of ridicule.
Recent research has shown that stuttering is in fact a neurological speech disorder that develops in childhood.
About 5% of children go through a period of dysfluency between ages 2 to 5 years.
This means that in an average classroom of 20 preschoolers, there is likely to be one child who may be stuttering.
Of this 5%, 2% will grow out of it on their own, 2% will be helped by speech therapy, and about 1% go on to live with persistent stuttering in adulthood. There are therefore approximately 400 000 South African adults who stutter.
South Africa is a nation where freedom and diversity is celebrated. Since the abolishment of the oppressive apartheid system in 1994, multiculturalism, multiracialism and gender inclusivity have been and continue to be celebrated and advocated for in South Africa.
Similarly, we believe the conversation of diversity in South Africa should also include people who stutter. Stuttering should become a recognised, acceptable and valuable communication practice within South African society. We therefore encourage parents, religious leaders, teachers, lecturers and employers to actively challenge and transform oppressive and discriminatory communication practices and give careful consideration about how to diversify spaces to better include people who stutter.
Are in-person oral presentations truly the only acceptable way to assess oral skills at school and university?
Are good and fluent communication skills truly the only acceptable communication practice in the workspace? Is fluent speech the only acceptable manner through which prayers can be delivered?
We encourage members of society to work closely with disability scholars and speech-language pathologists to transform oppressive and discriminatory communication practices.
But more importantly, we strongly believe the transformation of oppressive and discriminatory communication practices needs to happen in consultation with people who stutter.
We believe the experiences of people who stutter are an important contribution for the design and modification of existing curricula, interventions, practices, policies and programmes aimed at increasing the participation of people who stutter within our society.
People who stutter should have the freedom and support to speak and express themselves as they wish at any level of society.
Dr Isaacs is a post-doctoral fellow in the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice, University of the Western Cape and a member of the National Association for People who Stutter and Wilkinson is a speech therapist (private practice) and a founder of the National Association for People who Stutter.
Cape Times