New York University

Variability is the spice of life, but also difficult to study. This is especially true of developmental stuttering for which variability is a hallmark characteristic — people stutter sometimes on certain words or sounds, but not other times on those same words or sounds. Our view is that these intermittent and involuntary “breaks” in speech are the primary driver of the experience of stuttering and what leads to significant adverse impact on quality of life. In the savvy lab, we use a multi-leveled approach – neural through behavioral and environmental – to study the sources of variability including social interaction and anticipation. Ultimately, our goal is to use basic science approaches and knowledge of the human experience to inform support mechanisms and intervention approaches to improve the lives of children and adults who stutter.

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