Reconsidering Stuttering: How Breathing Dysfunction and Ankyloglossia May Contribute to Dysfluency

Stuttering research emerged at the dawn of speech-language pathology, but to date there is no definitive answer in the literature as to why some people stutter or why some people recover. Direct treatment by speech-language pathologists include techniques to improve phonation control for speech, but no research on respiration patterns and stuttering has been done. Recent discussions in online clinical study groups and online patient testimonials hypothesize that achieving normal lingual range of motion after frenectomy may be a factor. This presentation investigates clinical experience with professionals who treat stuttering and the correlation of how orofacial myofunctional disorder (OMD), and specifically the symptom of ankyloglossia, can impact dysfluency.

Linda D’Onofrio, MS, CCC-SLP completed her degree in Communication Disorders at the University of Oregon, her medical externship at the Oregon Health Sciences University Medical Center with a focus on inpatient neurological acute care and outpatient cognitive rehabilitation, and she completed her clinical fellowship at the Oregon VA Medical Center with a focus on dysphagia, aphasia, brain injury, and oral cancer.