The stammering research agenda: reflections from Oxford

The Oxford Stuttering and Cluttering Research Conference – formerly the Oxford Dysfluency Conference – is now in its 14th year. An international gathering of researchers working across a variety of institutions and disciplines to help improve our understanding of stammering and how we better support people who stammer. This year’s conference was attended by more than 250 academics from over a dozen countries. 

Through keynote speeches, oral presentations organised into parallel sessions and poster presentations, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work being done to enhance our knowledge of the mechanisms underpinning stammering, the factors affecting the impact and development of stammering over time, and therapy approaches available for very young and school-aged children. It’s impossible to reflect on everything that I learnt during this year’s conference, but here are a few highlights that the ASC community may be interested in.  

Wednesday was the first full day of conference and the two parallel sessions that I attended were very much focusing on the neuroscience of stammering. In the morning, research undertaken in Germany and Australia provided fresh insights into ways that brain stimulation might be useful in making therapy approaches, which speech and language therapists are already using, more effective.  After lunch, Professor Soo-Eun Chang summarised what we now understand about differences in brain activity between people who do and do not stammer based on the work she and her lab at the University of Michigan have been doing – building on the findings of earlier neuroimaging studies from the 2000’s.

Thursday was a hectic one – attending presentations from the Travers Reid nominees and presenting some of my own research that has been partly funded by ASC. The day kicked off with five presentations exploring the effectiveness of therapy approaches for young and school-aged children based on studies conducted in the UK and Australia. In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to co-present the findings of my own research with Professor Hilde Hofslundsengen of the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. This study examined how internalising symptoms (anxiety and depression) change over time in children who do and do not stutter, and whether additional language difficulties affect risk for higher mental health symptoms. We used data from over 17,000 children in the UK and plotted their scores at six different time points to see how their symptom scores changed between the ages of three and 17 years of age.   

Friday signalled the last day of the conference but there was still plenty to do, hear and learn. In the morning, ASC Youth Panel member, Phoebe, joined me to co-present the Top 10 Research Priorities in childhood stammering, which we published this time last year. The response from delegates – particularly those based outside the UK – was fantastic and we are hopeful that our session may inspire researchers in Europe and the USA to return to their institutions motivated to convene their own Priority Setting Partnership. Identifying the Top 10 priorities in childhood stammering research in other nations would be invaluable in helping to understand the perspectives of the international stammering community. The final parallel session comprised five presentations examining differences in the organisation and activity in the brain during moments of stammering – including some fascinating videos showing what is happening in the mouth and throat when someone stammers. All of this research helps us better understand what causes stammering, which could aid us in developing new and targeted therapy approaches.  

Finally, we rounded off the conference with the awards ceremony; ASC presented the Travers Reid Award that recognises the contribution of research undertaken by those early on in their career. The sub-committee who took time out of the conference schedule to judge the seven nominees were impressed by three nominations in particular. For the first time, we presented special commendations to two nominees in addition to the overall winner. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that being nominated at all is a huge achievement and I salute all those put forward.  

Despite my best efforts, there was plenty more to see, learn and discuss over the course of the week. The conference offered an opportunity to bring researchers together from across the field of stammering and to begin conversations that will hopefully inspire further advances in stammering research. Action for Stammering Children is proud to have had the opportunity to play its part by way of contributing to, informing and generating discussion around the research agenda. We look forward to returning to Oxford for the 15th Conference in 2028!