Communicative Fluency – A proposal to treat ‘fluency’ more fluently, and what this could mean for intervention

Webinar Description: Despite ambiguity in meaning and usage, “fluency” has played a central role in the understanding and treatment of stammering and other fluency disorders. The appropriateness of the term fluency in association with stammering has been questioned and critiqued, particularly in recent years. The purpose of this talk is to propose that fluency is best conceptualized as the efficiency of goal-directed action – a principle of least action in communication. We view fluency as a valued and operationalizable concept and that stammering and cluttering are, in their essence, fluency disorders. We will also provide insight from recent relevant findings and propose some ideas on how fluency is not just consistent with recent calls for neurodiverse and stammer-affirming care, but can empower them.

Speaker: Evan Usler is an Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Delaware. His Interpersonal Neurophysiology Lab investigates the neural and behavior correlates of fluency and fluency disorders, such as stuttering/stammering.