Stuttering pride
Stuttering pride is a social movement that repositions stuttering as a legitimate speech pattern. The stuttering pride movement challenges the perception of stuttering as a defect, reframing stuttering as a form of vocal and linguistic diversity that enriches language, ideas, and art forms.
The stuttering pride movement encourages people who stutter to embrace their stutter as a unique speech pattern. The movement foregrounds an emerging stammering culture. Such a stuttering culture highlights the power of creative writers, artists, and musicians to subvert concepts of normative speech through the power of expressive and generative dysfluency. In this sense, stutterers' writing, music, visual arts, and performances enable people to understand, hear, see, and feel stuttering in new ways by challenging and resisting fluency norms.
Stuttering pride has drawn ideas and inspiration from disability rights, in particular the development of the social model of disability and the neurodiversity paradigm. The movement advocates for societal adjustments to allow stutterers equal access to education and employment opportunities.
Stuttering as speech variation
Central to the stammering pride movement is the recognition and appreciation of the diversity of communication styles in society. Stammering pride positions stammering as one of a myriad of speech variations rather than a defect. It draws ideas and inspiration from disability rights, in particular the development of the social model of disability and the neurodiversity paradigm. Under the neurodiversity paradigm, stuttering can be seen as intrinsic diversity in brain function that alters speech production. Under this view, stuttering is a natural variation that should not be assumed to be a medical defect; the pathological nature of stuttering, and its difficulties, are created by an ableist environment that fails to accommodate stuttering, rather than the stutter itself.Stuttering pride advocates have highlighted a range of stigmas and discriminatory practices towards stuttering within society. Advocates also highlight environmental and cultural barriers for people who stutter, such as voice-automated telephone systems, which may not understand the stuttered voice; time-limited interviews and examinations, which place people who stutter at a disadvantage due to their slower rate of speech; and job requirements for "fluent communication skills."
Finally, the concept of "Stuttering Gain" has emerged as part of stammering pride, borrowing from the concept of Deaf gain. An individual who stutters may identify parts of their own life or identity, such as empathy, vulnerability and spontaneity, as attributes they have gained from stuttering. Furthermore, advocates may point to societal gains from the existence in the world of people who stutter. These societal gains may include music and artistic contributions of stuttering and people who stutter, highlighting an awareness of the importance of language and listening.
Development
Stuttering pride is a relatively new concept. The 2011 book, Voice Unearthed: Hope, Help, and a Wake-Up-Call for the Parents of Children who Stutter described how author Doreen Lenz Holte encountered advice she found on balance counter-productive for her and her child. The book has developed into advocacy for greater understanding by professionals of the needs of families with young stutterers.For adults, the website "Did I Stutter?" attracted writings questioning assumptions common in adult stuttering therapy. These included the assumption that fluency in and of itself should be the primary goal of treatment. An early culmination of the stammering pride movement was the 2019 publication, Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Deficit, which collected together essays investigating applying the social model of disability to stuttering.
Two of the longest-running campaigns are the websites "Stutter Talk" and "Stuttering is Cool." Stutter Talk is a website and podcast series with over 600 episodes published between 2007 and 2021. Stuttering is Cool follows the adventures of an anthropomorphic fox who stutters. The fox, Franky Banky, frequently refers to stuttering in a positive and/or humorous manner. Speech and language therapists have used Stuttering is Cool in therapy sessions to generate discussion with child and adult clients, art therapy, role-playing, and talking about stuttering with parents of children who stutter. Furthermore, a recent podcast called Proud Stutter has begun looking to shift societal norms around stuttering towards more positive and proud understandings.
Charities for stuttering have traditionally been based on information, therapies and interpersonal contact. Several charities have introduced a greater advocacy component. Stuttering Association for the Young delivers camps developing confidence and independence for children who stutter in the USA and Australia. These include prominent positive messaging such as "It's OK to stutter". The British Stammering Association launched a campaign in 2018, STAMMA, which aimed to change attitudes to stuttering. Another example was the 2020 "Find the Right Words" campaign, which STAMMA created in collaboration with advertising agency VMLY&R. The campaign edited Wikipedia entries for well-known personalities who stutter, removing negative language that had formerly been associated with their stuttering. Another initiative, 50 Million Voices, launched in 2019, and formally registered as a UK based charity in 2020. It brings together people who stutter, employers and allies from different countries and cultures to transform the world of work for the 50 million people of employable age who stutter worldwide, through activities designed to tackle discrimination, to educate and to share learning.
Implications for stuttering therapies
Stuttering pride has challenged some of the concepts that historically underlie some approaches to speech and language therapy. There has been a particular focus on the models of disability that underlie stuttering therapy and, consequently, the philosophy of therapy that comes from that.First, the medical model views stuttering as a disability occurring due to the underlying impairment, loss of function, or pathology of the individual. Intervention within a medical model approach aims to fix, cure or eradicate the pathology. For people who stutter, a medical model approach has led to interventions for stuttered speech with outcomes being centred around fluency and fixing stuttered speech. These include interventions such as fluency shaping therapy, electronic delayed auditory devices, and medications.
Second, the social model of disability considers disability within wider society rather than the individual in isolation. Societal barriers and prejudices are considered to be the cause of disability, rather than an individual's impairment, due to the world being designed for a specific/standard body type and, therefore, unable to accommodate any variations from this norm. From a social model perspective, the disability of people who stutter stems from societal expectations and fluency norms, as well as stigmatised perceptions and societal narratives about stuttered speech and environmental and structural barriers in society that exclude stuttered voices. This model posits that if these societal barriers were removed, people who stutter may experience less self-stigma about stuttering and have improved quality of life.
The impact on speech and language therapy
In the field of speech and language therapy, some types of stuttering therapies have focused on the production of fluent speech and a reduction or elimination of stuttered speech. For example, in the case of fluency-shaping therapies, the measurement of therapy outcomes has been based on counting the number of syllables stuttered, with therapy goals aiming to reduce this percentage. Additionally, speech-language pathologists work with people who stutter to explore the emotions, attitudes, self-stigma and societal stigma about stuttering/stuttering.There have previously been seen to be two dichotomous philosophies within the field of speech and language therapy distinguishing between the 'speak-more-fluently' and 'stutter-more-fluently' approaches. The former generally focuses on fluency-shaping and speech re-structuring, and the latter on reducing avoidance, masking, and negative attitudes towards stuttering, as well as modifying moments of stuttering. These two philosophies have directly shaped therapy practice, research priorities and services offered, resulting in significant variations in the dominant approach adopted in different countries across the world.
The social model of disability has created the foundations for a new wave of stuttering therapy. This model prioritizes people who stutter being seen as equal partners in research and co-producers of therapy knowledge. For speech and language therapists working from this frame of reference, the focus of therapy outcomes is shifting away from the focus on fluency techniques and psychological interventions towards individualized goals developed in collaboration with the patient. Stammering therapy using a social model framework does not focus on reducing stuttering or striving for fluent speech. Instead, it focuses on reducing social and self-stigma to allow patients to navigate barriers with confidence. Therapy outcomes may be associated with increased self-advocacy, feelings of empowerment to request accommodations, increased participation in preferred activities, reduced avoidance or masking of stuttering, increased confidence to openly stutter, increased comfort in speaking and more spontaneity in everyday interactions.