Anxiety and stuttering

Humans are social. How do we socialise? We communicate. We’re not born with the ability to write or to text but we can use our lungs to make sound! We learn to communicate through vocalisations and before long we begin to speak.

Research has shown that many adults who stutter (and present to a clinic) also experience social anxiety. Stuttering-related social anxiety mostly develops during the school years. Treatments for early stuttering aim to help children recover from the stuttering, such that they avoid any secondary psychological features. When I’m working with children I gauge how they are coping with living with the stuttering.

We have questionnaires to help assess stuttering-related social anxiety in adults. Some adult clients benefit from addressing the anxiety before working with me on the stuttering itself. Other adult clients are able to work on both their stuttering and their relationship with it concurrently. Professor Ross Menzies and colleagues at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre have developed an online program for speech-related anxiety particular to stuttering, the iGlebe.