Featuring the keynote "Effects of attentional focus on articulatory control in adults who stutter and its relationship to social anxiety"
Evidence suggests social stress has a stronger destabilizing effect on speech-motor control in adults who stutter (AWS) compared to adults who do not stutter (ANS). However, the nature of this interaction is not fully understood. One reason may be due to effects from mediating factors such as attention or consciousness in control, which have gone largely ignored. This presentation will discuss results from a project assessing changes in speech-motor control in AWS when speaking under an internal-focus, external-focus and social stress conditions.
A discussion will focus on the importance of understanding the relationship between social anxiety and the development of maladaptive social behaviors (attentional bias) in AWS and the implications this has on the development of treatment strategies aimed at reducing social anxiety and building more effective, fluency promoting communication strategies.
