2020 ASHFoundation New Investigators Research Grant Recipient
Visual Social Atttention Among Adolescents Who Stutter
Flipping the Narrative
Naomi Rodgers wants speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to think twice about treating stuttering with fluency strategies. Why? These strategies, says Rodgers, could possibly be doing more harm than good. Instead, she suggests, look at the social context when the stuttering occurs and see if there are ways to create a more open and accepting environment. Then, she says, the stuttering may be easier to cope and work with.
“People don’t stutter when they’re alone, they stutter in social situations. When people stutter, they experience this momentary loss of control of their speech mechanism. SLPs who teach fluency strategies are trying to offer help in the moment,” Rodgers explains, “but those strategies are adding stress because it’s difficult to use them due to the social dynamics that are happening, which often creates a feeling of guilt. It creates a vicious cycle.”
Rodgers, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa and a 2020 ASHFoundation New Investigators Research Grant recipient, focuses her work on the intersection between a person who stutters and their environment. Her study in 2020, Visual Social Attention Among Adolescents Who Stutter, focused on the experience of adolescents specifically because the teen years, she says, are ripe with opportunity to shape a child’s perception of their stuttering and give them some much-needed support. Having been an adolescent who stutters herself, Rodgers is keenly aware of the social landmines adolescents can face, regardless of living with a stigmatized communication difference.
“Oftentimes, we view adolescence as the problem years and are just trying to get teens through it alive. But now we know about the neuroscience of adolescence and it's a time of heightened neuroplasticity,” Rodgers explains. “I'm trying to figure out how we can reap the benefits of this brain chemistry that's changing at this time. It could be a really important time for growth and for learning and establishing healthy habits, but it could also be a reckless time when there is a lot of bad stuff that can happen, too.”
Rodgers comes to this journey through two paths: her personal experience as a stutterer and her experience working with supportive mentors. Rodgers has stuttered since childhood and recalls some of the trauma she endured. Fortunately, as a high school student, she worked with an SLP who also stuttered. That, she says, inspired her by demonstrating there was a professional path for her where she could thrive. During her undergraduate years at the University of Vermont, she worked with Barry Guitar, PhD, CCC-SLP, who is well-known for his research on stuttering. Under his guidance she was able to overcome what she calls a “dark time with her stuttering.” She recalls growing concerned that her stuttering would dissuade people from working with her because she hadn’t “recovered.” Fortunately, Guitar shared a different perspective on her situation.
“I was really questioning my ability to help anyone when I couldn’t even help myself,” she recalls. “All of this was rooted in shame and self-sabotaging kinds of thoughts. But Barry said, ‘No, no, no, this field needs you. Yes, stuttering is hard but you’re going to be able to empathize and connect with your clients so much more because of your experience.’ And that helped me shift my perspective to one of curiosity and openness.”
Rodgers continued her education at the University of Iowa and worked with another influential mentor, Tricia Zebrowski, PhD, CCC-SLP. She was impressed by Zebrowski’s client-centered focus and decided she wanted to continue what she saw as a humanistic approach to stuttering. Both mentors opened her eyes, she says, to the view that stuttering isn’t necessarily something that needs to be fixed, but instead maybe it’s the environment that needs to change. She is grateful for the research grant from the ASHFoundation, which helped get one of her first studies off the ground. Today, Rodgers serves as the director of the Iowa Stuttering Lab where she continues her work hoping to learn what environmental factors contribute to or hinder success for people who stutter.
“My goal is to understand what that internal lived experience is like, in the moment of stuttering, and more broadly, what the well-being and impact of stuttering on a person's quality of life might be,” says Rodgers. “I'm so grateful for what I do, and I feel like I’m paying it forward to future clinicians who treat people who stutter. I want to engage young clinicians and scientists to have a humanistic perspective to the therapy and science.”
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