The following experiments were developed for a science museum workshop teaching science to children who stutter. The experiments could also be used as high school class projects.
Before you start an experiment, develop a hypothesis
that you will test. Afterwards, present a theory explaining your
1) Interview a successful adult who stutters. This could be an accountant, a lawyer, or a teacher. You can find such a person by calling your local National Stuttering Project chapter. Call the National Stuttering Project at (800) 364-1677 to find your local chapter leader. Ask the following questions:
How did stuttering affect your childhood or high school years?
How has stuttering affected your adult life?
How has stuttering affected your choice of career?
How has stuttering affected your relationships or marriage?
What stuttering therapy have you had? Did it help you?
How severely did you stutter when you were younger?
How severely do you stutter now?
Are there situations in which you stutter more, or stutter less?
Are there are speaking situations you fear or avoid because you stutter?
What do you think causes stuttering?
2) Attend a meeting of your local National Stuttering
Project chapter. Write a report about what topics were covered
and what people said about stuttering. Call the National Stuttering
Project at (800) 364-1677 to find a self-help group in your area.
3) Help your speech pathologist organize a "Youth
Day" weekend stuttering workshop for children and teenagers
who stutter in your area. The National Stuttering Project has
a book explaining how to organize a "Youth Day" workshop.
Call the National Stuttering Project at (800) 364-1677 for the
4) Interview your speech pathologist about stuttering. Or find a speech pathologist who specializes in stuttering. Your school district may have such a specialist. Or you can call the Stuttering Foundation of America at (800) 992-9392 to find a stuttering specialist.
Ask the following questions:
What causes young children to stutter?
What causes stuttering in teenagers and adults?
What are two treatments for stuttering? How are they different? Describe the techniques and goals of each therapy.
Why do more boys stutter than girls?
What other speech disorders do children and teenagers have? How are these speech disorders different from stuttering? How are the treatments different?
Why did you choose a career in speech pathology?
5) Read a book about stuttering and write a book
report. Ask your speech pathologist to recommend a book.
6) Write a report about a famous person who stutters.
For example, you could write a book report on James Earl Jones'
7) For history class, write a book report on Stuttering:
The Search for a Cause and Cure, by Oliver Bloodstein, Ph.D.
(published by Allyn & Bacon, about $50).
8) Observe a speech pathologist treating a preschool
child who stutters. Write a report about this, answering these
questions: What games did the speech pathologist play with the
child? What was the purpose of the game? What did the speech
pathologist talk about with the child's parents? What did the
speech pathologist learn from the parents? What did the parents
learn from the speech pathologist?
9) Find out if any of your relatives stutter. Draw
a family tree showing your relationship to the person. Present
evidence that stuttering has a genetic cause, and evidence that
stuttering is not genetic.
10) Does another student in your school have a disability?
This could be a physical disability, such as a hearing loss,
or a mental disability, such as dyslexia. Compare stuttering
to the other student's disability. Are different life activities
affected? Which disability is more challenging to live with?
Has the other student always had the other disability, or has
it developed recently? What is the treatment for the other disability?
Make an audio or video recording of a person who
stutters. Make a tape of a person who doesn't stutter.
11) What kinds of disfluencies does the stutterer have? These might be blocked airflow, repeated sounds or syllables, or prolonged sounds.
What kind of disfluencies does the nonstutterer have? These might be interjections such as "um," "uh" and "you know"; changing what he or she says in the middle of a sentence; repeating words or sentences; pauses in the middle of a sentence; misarticulations, such as not being able to say the /r/ or /w/ sounds properly.
Count the number of disfluencies in a 100-word section
of the tape, for the stutterer and the non-stutterer. Compare
the disfluency rates of the stutterer and the nonstutterer.
12) Count the number of words or syllables each person
says in a three-minute section of tape. Compare the speaking
rates of the stutterer and the nonstutterer. Does the stutterer
talk faster or slower than the nonstutterer? Are parts of the
stutterer's speech too fast, and other parts too slow?
13) Ask each person if there are speaking situations
he or she is afraid of, or avoids. Are there people each doesn't
like to talk to? What about speaking to a group of people?
14) Repeat some of Wendall Johnson's 1937 studies
of adaptation and anticipation (see section on conditions that
increase or decrease stuttering).
15) Build your own delayed auditory feedback (DAF)
device. Use a Dolby Pro Logic surround-sound home theater amplifier,
or an electric guitar effects processor, or an electric guitar
delay pedal, or a reverb control. You'll need a microphone, amplifier,
16) Build your own frequency-altered auditory feedback (FAF) device. You could:
Use an electric guitar effects processor, microphone, headphones, and amplifier.
Use a "Voice Changer" toy. These look
like plastic megaphones, and make your voice sound like an alien
or a robot, and cost about $20. You will have to wire out the
speaker, and wire in headphones. Use headphones with built-in
volume controls, or add your own volume control. Use a Radio
Shack 1-megaohm potentiometer ($1.29, 271-211). Solder the two
outer pins to the two speaker wires. Solder the headphones jack
to the middle potentiometer pin, and the ground (black) speaker
wire (this should ultimately connect to the battery's negative
terminal). Use Radio Shack's switching jack ($1.39, 274-246)
so that the speaker switches on when you unplug the headphones.
17) Build your own masking auditory feedback (MAF) device. You could:
Use a frequency generator. Your electronics teacher may have one. Set it to generate a 125-Hz sine wave.
JDR Microdevices (800/538-5000) has an "Op-Amp
Function Generator" kit for $8.95. You'll need to add an
amplifer and headphones.
18) Go to a hardware store and buy a short piece
of hose (about twenty-five cents). Hold one end to one ear, and
speak into the other end. (Or you put a Fisher-Price toy plastic
stethoscope in your ears, and talk into it. This works better
because you hear with both ears.)
19) Test the effectiveness of the above four devices
on the speech of a stutterer. See if the devices alter the speech
20) Find a speech clinic that has a speech biofeedback system. Try it out and write a report about what the biofeedback system does.