About 1 per cent of adults stutter, which can make public speaking feel like an insurmountable challenge, but as United States President Joe Biden and singer Ed Sheeran have proved, the condition can be managed.

Speech Pathology Manager Prue Gourley says MQ Health’s Speech and Hearing Clinic regularly helps Macquarie University staff and students who stutter and want to learn strategies so they can feel more comfortable presenting.

“Presenting to groups is a big part of academic life, whether you’re an MRes student, a lecturer or a researcher who wants to speak at conferences,” says Ms Gourley.

“Stuttering tends to be made worse by anxiety, so the situations where we feel the most pressure to perform can also feel like the hardest to overcome.

“There is no cure for stuttering, but we can help you learn behavioural strategies that can be very effective in managing it.

“Being disempowered from communicating is debilitating, but there are options. Stuttering doesn’t have to hold you back from what you want to achieve.”

The condition usually starts in childhood, but the cause remains unknown. Boys stutter more than girls and about 80 per cent of children who stutter experience spontaneous resolution within 12 to 24 months.

For adults who stutter, different strategies will work for different people, with two of the most common interventions being self-imposed timeout and speech restructuring.

In self-imposed timeout, the person learns to pause when they feel a stutter coming on, while speech restructuring involves learning to speak to a different pattern, slightly elongating words. This latter strategy is used by President Biden.

Clients will usually do a block of intensive weekly sessions with a speech pathologist, followed by refreshers as required.

Services at the MQ Health Speech and Hearing Clinic are provided by Masters of Speech Pathology students under the supervision and guidance of certified practising speech pathologists.

They support both adults and children, and therapy can be provided face-to-face, or by phone, Zoom or Teams.

For more information about the clinic’s services, or to request an appointment, visit the MQ Health website.