40 Years Later: Reassessing Views on the Core Deficit, Variability, Relapse/Recovery, and Attention in Stuttering

The current article reassessed the views expressed in two articles written 40 years ago about the core deficit, variability, relapse and recovery, and the role of attention in stuttering. Motor factors are now generally agreed to be the core deficit underlying stuttering, but they interact dynamically over time with other factors (Smith & Weber). Variability and unpredictability of stuttering are the norm (Tichenor & Yaruss), not the exception and should be directly addressed in therapy. People who stutter (PWS) do think too much about speech production and this negatively impacts fluency (Eichorn et al.). In the last 40 years, it has become clear that PWS have different views about recovery and relapse. There is now less emphasis on fluency itself and more about managing impacts and quality of life. This is a dramatic change from how recovery and relapse were viewed 40 years ago.