First, it would be interesting to get more information on the accident, particularly if medical diagnoses have been made afterwards (e.g., traumatic brain injury). In this case, it would still be worth considering the following hypotheses: acquired neurogenic stuttering and psychological stuttering. Indeed, the onset of the stuttering occurred suddenly in adulthood and is associated with an accident that may have caused neurological damage and/or represented a traumatic psychological event. However, it is important to ensure that it really constitutes stuttering, and that the disfluencies¹ following the accident are not caused by memory or language problems. Disfluency could be a temporary consequence of an impact to the brain. Acquired neurogenic stuttering and psychological stuttering remain uncommon fluency impairments. They differ from developmental stuttering² in their causes, speech symptoms, treatment, and emotions experienced in relation to communication.
¹Disfluencies: These are interruptions in speech. They can be typical of stuttering (blocks, audible prolongation, repetition of parts of words, repetition of one-syllable words) or normal, referring to other disfluencies (interjections such as um, uh, like, you know; sentence revision, repetition of a part of a sentence, repetition of multisyllabic words). These other disfluencies manifest themselves in the majority of speakers and are not frequent.
²Developmental stuttering: Most people who stutter have developmental stuttering. It usually appears between the ages of 2 and 5, but can also appear during school age. The cause is neurophysiological, i.e., related to the functioning of the brain.
Sources: Guitar, B. (2014). Stuttering: An Integrated Approach to its Nature and Treatment (4e éd.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Beausoleil, N. (2014, hiver). ORA – 3557: Évaluation du bégaiement [course notes].
Thank you to Stéphanie G. Vachon, M.P.O., for writing this column.