When I tell people that speech IRL is a “speech therapy and inclusion consulting firm,” I get a lot of quizzical looks. As we spend more and more time working with companies, HR departments, heads of talent, and D&I/DEI committees, I’ve struggled to concisely articulate how we got here from speech therapy.

Thankfully, a new large-scale study on the merits of diversity training breaks it down. The name “speech IRL” is based on the principle that learning what to do is easy, but the real measure of change and progress is actually doing something “in real life”-- which is far more challenging.
The research conclusions Chang et al, in partnership with the Wharton School, echo almost word-for-word the founding principles of our practice.

Part 1: What’s new in stuttering research

Treating young children who stutter: Indirect or direct?

A recent study¹ used a randomized control trial (highest level of evidence), to determine the effectiveness of Lidcombe vs. RESTART-DCM for treating preschool children who stutter. The researchers found that at 18 months, clinical outcomes for direct and indirect treatment were comparable. The authors conclude that both treatments are equally effective in treating developmental stuttering in ways that surpass expectations of natural recovery.

Mice that stutter: Genetics and stuttering

Key points:

• Mice with a GNPTAB mutation (a gene thought to be involved in stuttering) displayed less vocalizations and more frequent longer pauses than mice without the mutation².
• The genes identified in stuttering all point to a single process, intracellular trafficking, but only account for at most 20% of persistent stuttering cases³.
• Bottom line: Stuttering is genetic, but this isn’t the whole picture.

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“I know the ins and outs of history. I can tell you verbatim the biography of Ulysses S. Grant. I know every battle of every war. How it began, how it played out, and how it ended.

But because I can’t navigate social situations, I don’t have a job and I have no friends, even though I deeply want to connect with others. Because of my diagnosis, I cannot find my place in the world.”

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