Eb. Cooper, RED HERRINGS, DEAD HORSES, STRAW MEN, AND BLIND ALLEYS - ESCAPING THESTUTTERING CONUNDRUM, Journal of fluency disorders, 18(4), 1993, pp. 375-387
Regret is expressed for the energies being dissipated by colleagues ad
dressing outmoded hypothetical constructs pertaining to the onset, dev
elopment, and maintenance of stuttering. Following a review of the dev
elopment of the author's thinking regarding fluency disorders over a 3
0-year period, it is concluded that the study of any single aspect of
stuttering must include consideration of the interactive effects of th
e disorder's affective, behavioral, and cognitive components extant at
the time of assessment. To stimulate the development of more comprehe
nsive yet communicable frameworks from which to view fluency disorders
, a definition is proffered of stuttering as a clinical syndrome with
three subtypes (developmental, remediable, and chronic perseverative)
comprised of characteristic affective, behavioral, and cognitive compo
nents.