stuttering in signed languages?

[Grushkin, Donald A]

I don't have any research on this, but I do have observations of sign language stutterers.  
 
My first was at Gallaudet, where a student would stutter in both speech and sign language (simultaneously).  He was a second-language learner of sign language.  It's been so long, I can't remember how exactly his stuttering looked.  I recall quite a bit of facial twitching and blinking accompanying his sign stutters.  
 
My second experience was at a school for the deaf.  There was a teenage student who did not have much (if any?) speech that I know of.  He had a bad stutter in sign.  He would be saying something, and then on one sign he would form part of the sign (handshape and part of the movement) but be unable to complete the movement, making several attempts before finally completing the sign in a spasmatic movement.  He also often had some twitching accompanying the stutter, but in his case, it looked more like it was a stress-related twitch (as compared to the first guy, whose twitches seemed more physiological).  
 
I noticed that the first guy in later years seemed to "outgrow" his stuttering -- I wonder if it was related to his increased linguistic fluency in sign, or if he had gotten some sort of therapy to control the stuttering.  I never dared to ask him.  
 
--Don Grushkin

________________________________

From: slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu on behalf of dcogill at une.edu.au
Sent: Tue 10/23/2007 6:00 PM
To: slling-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
Subject: [SLLING-L] stuttering in signed languages?



Hi there, a general query -

Does anyone have any observation of a parallel of stuttering in signed
languages? I'm teaching a First Language Acquisition unit this semester,
and in it stuttering is classed as a speech problem rather than a language
problem, and I've always accepted that. It suddenly occured to me in the
middle of a lecture, though - has anyone actually checked this out? Does
stuttering manifest in children acquiring a signed language, for example?

And what would one look for?  Repeated attempts to start to form the whole
sign?  Being able to choose one parameter, but not to form others? Such
as, having the handshape and location but not being able to 'release' the
movement?

Apart from the blocked ability to proceed with a sign's formation, it
seems that a real manifestation of stuttering in sign production would be
accompanied by evident frustration by the child - they FEEL they have a
problem, when they stutter, whereas they can have all sorts of other slips
and oddities in their langauge production without seeming in the slightest
bit worried by that.

And if stuttering does manifest in signed languages, will it only appear
in little native sighers, perhaps?  Is learning a signed language a bit
later in life a very different experience, as far as stuttering is
concerned? Heck, DO second language learners stutter, even in spoken
language production?

There's nothing like teaching to make you realise how much you don't know!

Can anyone out there help? Say that they've seen something like that, or
that they've NEVER seen something like that?

Dorothea.

Dr Dorothea Cogill-Koez
Language and Cognition Research Centre
University of New England,
Australia.


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