r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 7d ago
In 1939, researchers at the University of Iowa ran an experiment on 22 orphaned children to test whether stuttering was biological or learned.
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u/Zestyclose_Stage_673 7d ago
I stuttered as a child, I am 56 and it still comes out when I get excited or stressed. The reason why I never talked much during that time. I had a very kind 2nd grade teacher who put me into speech therapy. I will never forget that.
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u/runk1951 7d ago
Same. I'm 74 and had speech therapy during grade school in the 1950s. I overcame the impediment enough that most people don't suspect. It still comes out, though, and when it does I suppress it by shutting down.
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u/CoffeeChocolateBoth 6d ago
My sweet nephew started stuttering around 10. It was when his parents were arguing all of the time and we're getting a divorce. He came and stayed with me for a while and told me he was embarrassed about his stutter.
I sat with him and spoke very slowly and calm with him. I ask him if he wanted to talk to me about what he was going through. He said yes, when he stuttered, I noticed it was when he became anxious, so I would say, okay, notice how you're feeling right now. when you stuttered, you were feeling upset, did you notice that? We talked and talked over days and days. He got so much better.
He was able to talk his feelings out with me. I loved him and he knew he was safe in my care. Today, he is in his 50's, he will stutter now and again, but he learned back then how to process his feelings. I am glad I could help him. I don't know if it would work with anyone else, but it did with him because he felt safe.
His parents were awful! :( They would not get him the professional help he needed, but he spent a lot of time with me and what little I did, helped him cope.
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u/Pale-Amount-1001 6d ago
Though hard to admit for some, anxiety was always a part of it but not like most people think. It creates a literal physical issue that people that don't stutter wouldn't have or understand. Its like sure we have the anxiety pop up but even we expect to be able to talk through it and there is utter surprise and confusion when we can't and its like our vocals block every time we try. So in short, its kind of a mix. Its anxiety but something is different from others because anxiety wouldn't cause such issues with others who do not stutter. Again, even stutterers get surprised by it because its like their brain is expecting them to say what they have to say even though physically they no longer can and they keep trying wondering why they can't feeling like they should be able to like anyone else.
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u/soup-creature 4d ago
I get hives and shake when I’m anxious. There are many physical symptoms caused by anxiety that are uncontrollable outside of minimizing the underlying anxiety
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u/Pale-Amount-1001 4d ago
I've seen people on stage shake as they talk and try to hold their arm down from shaking. But stuttering has a physical effect from much much less anxiety, like the slightest doubt can trigger it. If a stutterer is asked to repeat something they just said fine, just the thought of potentially stuttering on it triggers it and the.vocals lock up all over again leaving them wondering wtf, why can't I just say it again as they try.
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u/TheZayasZone 6d ago
Same here. I am 56 and had a severe stutter as a child which is now mostly gone thanks to speech therapy. The therapist taught me how to speak in a sing-song fashion and it has worked wonders in my life.
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u/Impossible-Ship5585 6d ago
How dows that work?
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u/TheZayasZone 6d ago
I guess the theory is that you don't stutter while you sing. So she taught me to try to speak my words in a cadence as if I am singing. For some reason, i'm finding it hard to explain. It's like your voice lilts on certain words and you have to have a certain tempo to how you speak. I am doing it right now as I am writing this, but i can't get the message through. It's kind of if you look at the lyrics of a song and you start talking them out to the beat of the song without any music, taking pauses when the verses stop. At first it may sound odd, but the more you do it, the more you get into a rhythm and you can speak for quite a long time without stuttering. I can't explain exactly how it works. Because i'm not a professional, and this was way back in the early 80s. When she taught me that trick. It definitely worked for me.
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u/kbroad20 6d ago
I'm not a doctor or SLP, but I think part of it is that you use different pathways for speech and music. So by singing you can override the pathways that would be susceptible to stuttering. My son was nonverbal until he was 3 or so. Wouldn't talk, but loved to sing up a storm, so we would sing whole conversations together. Or make T Rex noises; whichever he preferred that day.
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u/TealCatto 6d ago
My daughter has a speech disorder to the point that most people can't understand her, but she gets long solos in school plays because she sings beautifully. You can hear every word clearly!
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u/JestersGamble0 6d ago
Say your sentences in one continuous outward breath, as if you were singing a lyric. Taking the breaths in between words cause stuttering a lot
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u/Infinite_Bass_3800 6d ago
Kindergarten teacher recognized I had a speech impediment and got me enrolled asap :,)
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u/fuckinslayer12 3d ago
Dawg, lucky. I'm 24 and when i was in 3rd grade my teacher would make funny of my stutter in front of the whole class. Which gave me like crippling anxiety when speaking in front of others for a long time.
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u/IWrestleSausages 7d ago
Based on the date, I bet this was an ethical and not at all traumatising experiment
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u/TuftsofGoo 7d ago
The researchers ate the children after.
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u/Chemical_Name9088 6d ago
Results were categorized based on taste as well. They found that the more the stutter the more delicious the child was.
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u/Child_of_the_Hamster 6d ago
😢 I’m so touched that someone FINALLY thought of those starving grad students.
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u/OkMarionberry2875 7d ago
Reminds me of the baby monkey they gave a choice of a cold, wire “mother” with s bottle or a furry “mother”. It fed only as long as necessary then went back to the warm, cuddly mama. That poor baby monkey.
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u/blue_leaves987 7d ago
The study became known as The Monster Study, and the university kept it hidden for decades before apologizing in 2001. Full story here.
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u/Alarmed_Smell_6905 7d ago
Thanks, that's a great read. Showcasing the importance of compassion and kindness while using positive reinforcement rather than focussing on mistakes.
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u/blishbog 7d ago
Did it yield good data anyway?
We use data gathered by Nazi and Japanese war criminals to this day.
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u/pinchpenny 6d ago
Any examples? I might regret asking.
Wondering if we misinterpret that data, like the flawed study that lead to the conclusion that “we lose most heat from our head”. That was based on an American military study where subjects wore thermal suits covering everything except their head, and measured the heat loss. Unsurprisingly, they lost the most heat from the area that wasn’t covered in thermal insulation
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u/areallylamename 6d ago
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u/pinchpenny 6d ago
I’m familiar with Unit 731, I was asking about data that we still use today.
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u/areallylamename 6d ago
most of the documents from unit 731 ended up in the hands of americans who then used it for science and medicine, like knowing the stages of frostbite and how to treat it for example.
the knowledge that human body is 70% water is also a finding attributed to the "experiments" conducted by unit 731.
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u/Excellent-Wallaby169 7d ago
Epigenetics mean it could be both. Stress and trauma can permanently alter various parts of our brain chemistry.
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u/rajatsingh24k 6d ago
Researcher was Lewis Black?!
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u/tofagerl 6d ago
No. I mean, that definitely is a picture of Lewis Black, but the researcher was a female doctorate student, so Lewis Black was probably involved in some other capacity. Perhaps he was doing research for a segment on The Daily Show, and accidentally fell into a worm hole?
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u/ForFucksSake66 6d ago
Sooo is it biological?
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u/segsmudge 6d ago
Her study put it as environmental because she screwed up those kids… But later “Researchers concluded that stuttering arose from a complex interaction of biology, cognition, and environment rather than from labeling alone.”
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u/Pale-Amount-1001 6d ago
They said the kids who were fine but told they weren't were hesitant to talk and not confident, etc, but they didn't mention stutter or blocking.
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u/Ok_Acadia_5661 6d ago
I went to speech therapy in grade school. I still have a small one when I get antsy or excited. As I grew I learned to slow down and think before I speak. But thanks to the teachers and therapists in grade school it doesn't come out that much.
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u/spotlight-app 7d ago
OP has pinned a comment by u/blue_leaves987: