Question

Compare and contrast the three theories of stuttering, the organic theory, the psychological theory and the psychological theory. How are they alike and how are they different?

Answer 1

• Organic theories propose an actual physical cause for stuttering.Most well known is the theory of cerebral dominance or the "handedness theory" proposed by Orton and Travis (1930s).
• Theory assumed that the muscles of oral mecahnism on the right and left side of the body received neural impulses from both the right and left cerebral hemispheres.
• Assumed that one of the cerebral hemispheres was dominant over the other for issuing the neural impulses that controlled the temporal sequencing of speech. If one hemisphere was not dominant, a discoordination between the right and left halves of the speech musculature would exist that produced stuttering.
• Behavioral theories assert that stuttering is a learned response to conditions external to the individual.
  A prominent behavioral theory, the "diagnosogenic theory" was developed by Wendell Johnson (1940's and 1950's)The differences between these two groups of children lay in the parental reactions to these hesitations.
• Psychological theory contends that stuttering is a neurotic symptom (internal conflicts) treated most appropriately by psychotherapy. Research indicates that psychotherapy is not an effective method for the treatment of stuttering.
• A theory of neurolinguistic function is proposed to explain fluency and the production of stuttered and nonstuttered speech disruptions Central to the theory is the idea that speech involves linguistic and paralinguistic components, each of which is processed by different neural systems that converge on a common output system.
• Fluent speech requires that these components be integrated in synchrony. When they are dyssynchronous, the result can be either nonstuttered disfluency or stuttering, depending on time pressure. Time pressure is defined as the speaker’s need to begin, continue, or accelerate an utterance.
• Stuttering results when the speaker is under time pressure and is relatively unaware of the cause of dyssynchrony. Stuttering is defined as disruption of speech that is experienced by the speaker as a loss of control The theory presented here accounts for both the disruption and the experienced loss of control.