The importance of understanding the broader experience of stuttering.

This commentary is on the original article by Boyce et al. on pages 1297–1306 of this issue.

Understanding the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering Can Improve Stuttering Therapy.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the value for speech-language pathologists of considering the overall stuttering condition-including speakers' experiences during and around moments of stuttering-in treatment with individuals who stutter. We first highlight a framework for conceptualizing the entirety of the stuttering condition. We then present recent research and clinical perspectives about stuttering to support the claim that speech-language pathologists who account for individual differences in how their clients experience stuttering are better positioned to treat stuttering more effectively.

Outcomes Following Participation in a Support-Based Summer Camp for Children Who Stutter.

Purpose: Self-help and support activities are often recommended for people who stutter, and there is growing interest in understanding whether and how such experiences might be beneficial for children who stutter. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential impact of participation in Camp SAY, an overnight support-based summer camp experience for children who stutter, by measuring changes in scores on the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES).

Method: Participants were 107 children who stutter (age range: 8-18 years) who attended Camp SAY during the summers of 2013, 2015, and/or 2016.

How Speech-Language Pathologists Can Minimize Bullying of Children Who Stutter.

Stuttering can be a significant problem for children who stutter, but there is much that speech-language pathologists can do to help. This article summarizes six key steps, based on the work of Murphy and colleagues, that clinicians can take to minimize the occurrence and impact of bullying for children who stutter: (1) educating children about stuttering; (2) educating children about bullying; (3) helping children change the way they think and feel about their stuttering through desensitization, cognitive restructuring, and acceptance activities; (4) helping children learn to use appropriately assertive responses that decrease the likelihood of bullying; (5) educating peers and bystanders about stuttering and bullying so that they are more likely to respond in helpful ways; and (6) educating parents, teachers, and administrators about how they can create an environment where it is not okay to bully, but it is okay to stutter.

Update on Didactic and Clinical Education in Fluency Disorders: 2013-2014.

Purpose: This study surveyed didactic and clinical education in fluency disorders at undergraduate and graduate institutions in the United States that provide education in speech-language pathology to determine whether a previously observed reduction in requirements has continued since prior surveys (Yaruss, 1999; Yaruss & Quesal, 2002).

Method: The study involved a detailed questionnaire that was sent to 282 communication science and disorders departments. Questions examined didactic and clinical education, as well as faculty knowledge about fluency disorders.

Musicians show general enhancement of complex sound encoding and better inhibition of irrelevant auditory change in music: an ERP study.

Using electrophysiology, we have examined two questions in relation to musical training - namely, whether it enhances sensory encoding of the human voice and whether it improves the ability to ignore irrelevant auditory change. Participants performed an auditory distraction task, in which they identified each sound as either short (350 ms) or long (550 ms) and ignored a change in timbre of the sounds. Sounds consisted of a male and a female voice saying a neutral sound [a], and of a cello and a French Horn playing an F3 note.