Lidcombe is dead: long live any treatment?

It took Peter years to get Marie-Christine Franken on StutterTalk. So enjoy the podcast! And it took her years to have the 2007 comparative study between Lidcombe and Demands&Capacities analysed and published: a true source of frustration to me as this is such a key piece of research to dispel claims of supremacy by Lidcombe. Already in 2012, they had the data but it took more than 2 years to write it up and get it published.

The listener will note that Marie-Christen is a bit scared of misspeaking and of her findings... She might be an overly cautious person by nature, but if a friend of a friend told you that she actually got bullied from someone in a distant land and was concerned about her job security, you can understand why she behaves the way she behaves.

The key statements are

• The large-scale study started in 2007 did not find a significant overall difference between the two treatment approaches: Lidcombe and Demand and Capacities treatment.
• She expects the study to be published within months.
• She refutes that it is only ethical to use Lidcombe.

How the tower of information leads to an integrated framework for biopsychosocial ideas

I have published an article with a friend of mine on a new framework on how to classify all drivers of human behaviour and experience. I have specifically designed it to include all possible drivers of stuttering behaviour in one single framework, and it turned out to be generic to all behaviour and disorders. More details on our website bps2.com.

Here is the abstract:

The biopsychosocial model is the prevailing conceptual model in relationship to which clinicians organize their analysis, evaluation and intervention. Since its promotion by Engel, little work has been done to provide a more solid conceptual basis for the relationship between the biological and the psychosocial processes in sickness and in health. We propose such a framework, using the perspective of life forms as information gathering and utilizing systems. We derive the simplest non-trivial model, the four domain model, which consists of the physical domains determining human processes: the environment, the body, the confined memories, and the communicable memories. We then re-visit Engel's case study to contrast our model with his systems approach, and apply it to issues in psychosomatics and the mind-body connection.

If you want a complimentary copy, please send me an email: tom dot weidig at gmail dot com

Check out and support Dylan's work!

My name is Dylan Madeley, and I've struggled to come to terms with two different aspects of my life. The first one set me on a path of frustration and retrying, constant self-improvement, bouts of social isolation, and has ultimately played a huge role in defining who I am today. The second one is stuttering, which I've lived with since about age five. In both cases, I spent some time running away in one form or another; in both cases, I have felt more whole as a person by accepting them and being more open about them. I live in a suburb north of Toronto with two chinchillas, write and copy edit for Auxiliary Magazine, and in my spare time pursue a career as a novelist. I have written one manuscript of minimum 50,000 words each year since 2008.

Since this blog has a stuttering/cluttering focus, I'll share my views about how these two things relate to each other. I took up creative writing a few years after developing a stutter, and my dad inspired me to tell stories. While I can't reach into my thought processes at the time, I strongly suspect that here I was with very real and seemingly insurmountable communication difficulties, immediately setting me apart from every other kid I knew (for years, the only other two stutterers I had ever met were two guys who also attended Sick Kids for speech therapy). The written word has its own challenges, vast and not perfectly understood by me at a

Ice Bucket Challenge Hijacked for Stuttering

Lecture material from Antwerp Stuttering Conference

You can find my presentation here. I talk again about how we need to find a common framework encompassing all elements that drive stuttering behaviour.

All other presentations are on this webpage listing all the speakers and parallel sessions here.

World Conference on Cluttering

If you are interested in cluttering, check out the website of the 2nd world conference on cluttering: here.

Fear of public speaking is the most common phobia among fluent people!

Source: BestMastersInCounseling.com

Facial expressions may lead to miscommunication during a business video meeting

Michael Yunat from GetVIOP suggested the below "infographic, where we demonstrate how facial expressions may lead to miscommunication during a business video meeting." More here.

Press release from The Stuttering Foundation

For Immediate Release

Contact: Greg Wilson

greg@curleycompany.com

571-239-7474 

Picture caption: Stuttering Foundation President Jane Fraser (second from left) honors authors Scott Damian, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, Anna Olswanger and Vince Vawter during its National Stuttering Awareness Week gala at the Lotos Club in New York City.

Download picture  

                                                                   

Stuttering Foundation Honors Four Courageous, Inspirational Authors

NEW YORK (May 13, 2014) — To celebrate National Stuttering Awareness Week, May 12-18, the Stuttering Foundation (www.StutteringHelp.org) honored four authors whose recent books are widely acclaimed by both critics and readers alike.

Stuttering New York

I am back from my US / New York. Jelena and myself, we met a few people from the stuttering community. First of all, a big thank you to Ora, a long-term reader of TSB and a person who stutters, and Dan for their hospitality. I met Ora the last time I was New York when he had responded to my call through the TSB blog to meet up with people from the NY stuttering community.

I also met up with Eric Jackson, the ex co-host of StutterTalk and his fiancee. He is currently doing a PhD in stuttering (what else?), and they took us to a concert at Williamsburg. We didn't have enough to talk through details.

We also met up with Chaya, who is a person who stutter and an SLT. 

And finally, the American Institute for Stuttering (AIS) (many thanks to Carl Herder) invited me to give a presentation / lead a discussion round on stuttering research. I presented my framework that allows to describe all aspects of stuttering, and I talked about my neurologically based demands and capacity theory. But it was not a monologue (or at least I hope so!) with many questions and comments on theories of stuttering. Again, not enough time really. It was so noisy, and I asked Carl if he could close the windows, and Heather said: they are closed, it's Manhattan! ;-)

ELSA Youth Meeting this summer: Deadline is soon!

For young people who stutter and are under 28, go to a free youth meeting in the Netherlands. I was there and I really enjoyed it. Made friends for life. Check out the ELSA website.

Meet me on my US trip

I will be in the US from April 11th to April30th.

Meet me in New York, Tucson, or San Diego area! I am always happy to meet readers, especially if they stutter! ;-)

Contact me via email! My gmail address is tom DOT weidig!

Discuss with me at AIS in NY on April 17th

Come to the American Institute for Stuttering on Thursday April 17th from 6-7:30pm in New York. They invited me to talk about research in stuttering. There will probably be a round table discussion on the latest understanding, what the future might hold, and how it could impact treatment!

Stuttering: a short animation film

Check out Bertrand and Timmy's animation film about stuttering. I met them at the Antwerp stuttering conference.

Let me know what you think, and help the creators with your feedback!

Friday key note speakers at Antwerp ECSF Conference

I am sitting here in the entrance hall close to the reception desk of the Antwerp Conference.

Here is my report on the three Friday key note speakers:

The first keynote speaker was Ann Packmann. Her speech was about Exploring the relationship between treatment and causal theory in stuttering. She also presented her model of the moment of stuttering, developed by herself and Attanasio. She started out with talking about how one needs to find the cause for a heart issue and back pain before treating it. Unfortunately, that was not a good example, because many people now recognize the biopsychosocial aspects of these issues. Back pain and heart issue can certainly come from or be modulated by psychosocial causes, and treating the physical cause might not be enough. he then talks about  verbal communication & complexity theory. She correctly says that speaking is the most complex thing humans do and which sets them apart from other primates. She goes into complexity theory

Guest Blogger Richard Harkness: Stuttering's Primary Paradox and How it Tricks Us

Here is a guest post by Richard Harkness. If you want to be a guest blogger, please contact me.

Stuttering's Primary Paradox and How it Tricks Us (Richard Harkness) 

Some readers might remember me from workshops I've presented on the brain basis of stuttering and neuropatterning at National Stuttering Association (NSA) conventions in San Diego, Denver, Buffalo, and Atlanta. My most recent project was completing the new neuropatterning Home Course [http://neuropatterningforstutterers.com].

What I call the primary paradox, more than any other aspect of stuttering, accounts for the tremendous confusion that has always surrounded this perplexing disorder. It's easy to fall into this pothole.

The paradox is this: If PWS (Persons Who Stutter) can be fluent in some situations, why can't they be fluent in all situations? That is, why can most PWS speak fluently when speaking alone or to a pet--but stutter when aware of a human listener? And why can most PWS speak fluently when chorus reading (reading aloud in unison with someone else)? What could explain this except some kind of emotional or psychological issue? (This seeming paradox can be explained neurologically-by the excitation feedback component of stuttering-as discussed in The Two Components of Stuttering [http://neuropatterningforstutterers.com/?page_id=1056].

Arya Kumar Sinha believes that stuttering is totally curable.

Arya Kumar Sinha wrote to me that stuttering is curable. Read his email to me. I am not sure about his "By the laws of physics .Many-worlds interpretation , which successfully explained , loopholes of quantum physics , and today Dr. Stephen Hawking is a great supporter of this theory."

Hi Tom , I am Arya Kumar Sinha. I would like to contradict the view that is propagated in your web-site like stammering is not curable. My view is that : stammering is totally curable. I will place good arguments in favor of it. I am from India. At one point , I used to stammer severely with block/repeat on "A" "E" "I" "M" O" "U" "P" "D" "R" "L". From there , today i have achieved total fluency. I can speak fast like any normal speaker , without a single block on any letter. Why stammering is curable : The argument is : 1) Consider flipping of coin . P(head) = P(tail) =1/2. Similarly if we assume 2 states of stammering , then P(cure)=P(non-cure)= 1/2. So I rule out your 1st argument that stammering is not curable, by showing that there is equal possibility of both the cure/non-cure states. Its perfectly up to you to choose one. Both of these states exist in nature. 2) A computer i.e the logical processing area of a computer is composed of 3 parts. 1) Software 2) Operating system 3) Hardware. A programming error/bug appears if there is malfunction/error in the software part or OS or hardware. If in case of stammering there was a hardware error . then the individual would face it , while singing or while talking to himself. But in such cases a stammerer finds himself totally fluent thereby signalling that there is

100% guarantee that Anna Deeter does NOT make you stutter-free in 3 days!!

A TSB reader sent me the following email. If you have been in contact with her, contact the authorities!

You might be interested to take a look at Carl Herder's FB posting on Anna Deeter, an unlicensed speech therapist in California who's offering speech therapy in the guise of "training". Not only that, but a "I offer 100% success guarantee that at the end of the 3-day STUDY COURSE they will be stutter-free!! 

Carl is urging people to let the California licensing authorities know of her illegal activities.

Her program costs only $8000.

I suggest to Anna Deeter that she should charge the $8000 only after the person is cured. I am sure if she offers a 100% success guarantee, she is willing to wait for three days for the $8000! I would be very happy to give her the money for a cure!!!!

IFA Conference: July 6th-8th 2015

Here some information about the next IFA conference:

IFA’s 8th World Congress will be held at Catholic University in Lisbon, Portugal, where Jaqueline Carmona and Goncalo Leal are looking forward to serving as co-convenors. IFA’s Meetings and Conferences Committee received an array of excellent bids from Argentina, Australia, India, Portugal and USA. After careful consideration, the event was awarded to the bidding team from Portugal because their bid is the most advantageous for IFA and is responsive to the feedback received from IFA’s membership. Consistent with that feedback, holding the conference in Portugal will facilitate considerably more affordable congress registration fees. The 2015 IFA World Congress will be an exciting collaboration between IFA, ICA, and the Portuguese team, and will address stuttering, cluttering and other fluency disorders within its remit. This congress will also invite participation from the stuttering community, and will encourage collaboration between professionals and people with fluency disorders. More details regarding the 2015 congress will be published early in 2014, so watch www.theifa.org for more information!

Antwerp Stuttering Conference March 28th & 29th 2014

Check out the Antwerp Stuttering Conference on March 28th & 29th 2014: here.

I will be giving a workshop on how stuttering fits into a biopsychosocial framework. You find the 2012 version here.

I hope to see you there!

Let's meet up in New York, Tucson, or San Diego!

I will be in

New York (April 11th-18th),

Tucson/Arizona (April 18th-27th), and 

San Diego/California (April 27th-29th)!

If you live around there and want to meet up, send me an email tom . weidig @ gmail . com !!

Happy New Year to all of you!

I have not been very busy with my blog lately. I mainly posted links to events, and did not do a deeper analysis. Let's hope I have more time this year. Facebook has been taking up most of my time, and Luxembourgish politics. It's fun to see how that all works, but that phase of exploration is finite.

I am currently working on my book on the biopsychosocial model, and also in relationship to understanding stuttering better: check out the link.