Thursday, January 29, 2015

Australian study screens baby's brains

Here is a report on an Australian research study which screens baby's brains. Those babies have stuttering siblings, which make them more likely to develop stuttering. How successful is this study going to be?

As always in Australia, Mark Onslow is involved. He was probably the person who worked hard to get the money and the people together, something he is good at. The outcome of his studies is not always so good unfortunately. First, the outcome study of Lidcombe early childhood intervention was problematic and a review a few years later was unable to locate all the kids who actually had taken part in the treatment. Second, there was a long-term study on stuttering on a large scale, but I haven't heard of the results at age 5, for example, even though the study should have those data. Long-term studies are always sensitive to many factors, e.g. people leaving, money running out, people using interests.

4 comments:

Torsten Hesse said...

This is a paper about the ELVS up to the age of fife years:

Watts et al.(2014). Language ability of children with and without a history of stuttering: A longitudinal cohort study.


Unfortunately, they don't report how many of the stuttering children have been recovered.

Don T. said...

"Professor Mark Onslow from the university's Australian Stuttering Research Centre said the precise causes of stuttering remained a mystery.

"We have a strong feeling it's a problem with neural speech processing which means people who stutter just can't make the muscular movements they need quickly enough to be able to talk like everyone else," he said."

I can only assume that Onslow was talking down to the reporter here, and that he doesn't actually believe that foolishness. "Just can't make the muscular movements" certainly doesn't describe a stuttering block in any sense of the words.

Anonymous said...

To Dr Weidig,

This blog is a black hole for any person seeking relief from stuttering. There is an aura of pessimism here which clearly reflects your inability to overcome your own stuttering and how you hide behind the veil of education which as if it gives you any real credibility with an issue as intricate as stuttering. lol at your donations link. You are a fraud.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous,

Dr. Tom Weidig is not a fraud!
He's an honest and independent voice!

cheers, :)

F.B.