Stuttering is a speech problem that occurs when the flow of words in vocal speech is blocked and interrupted by reasons such as repetition, stuttering, respiratory arrest, muscle tension. Many people in the world have various speech problems, and stuttering can be counted as a common example among these problems. Efforts are being made to solve the problem and the problem that causes this speech problem.

A recent study out of New York has revealed an important detail about what stuttering is and how it can be treated. Perception of having a listener appears to be significantly influential for adults who stutter, according to research.

Participants had no speech problems when they were sure they weren’t being listened to

A group of scientists from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at New York University conducted a study to test the hypothesis that “adults with stuttering problems do not stutter during private speech.” Adults who stutter are more fluent when alone, but this is not easy to prove. One of the most important factors in this scientific study examining the effect of listening on stuttering was that the participants were convinced that no one was listening.

“There is ample evidence that people who stutter do not stutter when speaking alone, but this phenomenon has not been confirmed in the lab, mainly because it is difficult to create conditions in which people truly believe they are alone,” said Eric Jackson, a researcher and speech-language pathologist at New York University. The researchers studied 24 volunteers in five different scenarios: reading aloud, speaking privately (the only scenario where no one seems to be listening), repeating the private speech for two listeners, and speaking to the researchers in two different scenarios.

Those who chose to speak privately were given three computer coding tasks known to get people talking to them. Although they were monitored and recorded by the researchers, it was said that no one would listen while the computer was doing its task. This was the only review in which all 24 participants had virtually no stuttering. The participants were then told that they were actually resting, and the experiment continued.

Social anxiety can cause speech disorder

“We devised a new method of convincing participants that they were alone—that their speech would not be heard by an audience—and we found that adult stutterers do not stutter under these conditions,” said Jackson. In the research, the answer to the question of why the lack of an audience is so effective on problems related to speaking fluency was sought. Participants often state that they can feel judged or evaluated when there are other people listening to them.

According to the researchers, stuttering is thought to be caused by a combination of genetics and neurophysics. When it can be determined at what stage social thoughts begin to affect young children, it is expected that new developments regarding stuttering will emerge. “I think this provides evidence that stuttering isn’t just a ‘speech’ issue, it has to be a strong social component at its core,” Jackson said.

You can find the article about the study here.