A connection between a stuttering research institute and the National Air and Space Museum may seem unusual. Yet, Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI – https://www.stuttering.org ) has two history-making links to the world of flight that are part of the Smithsonian collections in Washington, D.C.

As the pioneer in behavioral stuttering therapy, Webster’s institute has treated nearly 6,000 people who stutter from across the United States and 47 other countries. Clients come from all backgrounds and include athletes, teachers, engineers, students, doctors, military personnel, business professionals, police officers, actors, paramedics, caregivers, pilots, and even royalty. And, indeed, some of these individuals and their relatives have made a lasting mark on history.

One of HCRI’s clients is Annie Glenn, wife of former senator and astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 and the oldest person to fly in space at the age of 77. Glenn has logged more than 218 hours in space and is recognized as a national hero. In addition to his many NASA accomplishments, Glenn’s career also includes serving as a Marine colonel, business executive, and U.S. Senator.

Even with his extensive commitments in space and on earth, Glenn set aside time to accompany his wife and participate in many HCRI events through the years, including the institute’s reunions, building dedication, and anniversary celebrations.

An impressive collection of items from Glenn’s space missions is on display year round at the National Air and Space Museum. In addition, the Smithsonian honored Glenn as the centerpiece of the museum’s heralded “Milestones of Flight” exhibit in 2004.

Aviation enthusiasts will also find another link to HCRI at the National Air and Space Museum – a 1930s-vintage Lockheed Vega called “Winnie Mae.” The plane was originally owned by F.C. Hall of Oklahoma, an oil tycoon and grandfather of long-time HCRI supporter, program participant, and board member Charles Fain, who recently passed away. Hall hired Wiley Post as his private pilot for Winnie Mae, which he named after his daughter who was Fain’s mother.

Post was an ambitious and daring one-eyed pilot. Winnie Mae was one of the most advanced planes of its era. The combination, along with a strong bond that quickly grew between Post and Hall, created an ideal set of circumstances for changing the record books.

In 1931, Post made history with Winnie Mae and the help of a navigator by setting an around-the-world speed record of 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes. Then, two years later, he beat his own trans-world time by 21 hours. The aviator flew solo on the second journey, using new aeronautical tools – an autopilot device and radio direction finder.

During that time, Post also set his sights on breaking altitude records. Yet, Winnie Mae’s cabin could not be pressurized, representing a challenge to the ace pilot. So Post worked in partnership with the B.F. Goodrich company to develop the first pressurized flight suit that he later used to fly as high as 50,000 feet and discover the jet stream. His flight suit paved the way for the future of pressurized flight.

Winnie Mae is on display in the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Post’s pressurized flight suit is also on exhibit at the museum.

“In addition to these fascinating links to the National Air and Space Museum, we have treated many pilots over the years who have come to HCRI for stuttering treatment,” Webster said. The HCRI president is a pilot himself, as well as a licensed psychologist and professor emeritus of psychology at Hollins University.

“While HCRI’s connections to aviation history are most interesting, our greatest satisfaction comes from helping people from all walks of life acquire the skills to speak fluently,” Webster emphasized.

The institute offers 17 stuttering therapy programs annually, each of which lasts 12 days. After participating in the intensive treatment, clients continue to benefit from a host of post-therapy support tools and often maintain close contact with the institute’s clinicians and staff throughout their lives. The tools and ongoing contact help HCRI program participants maintain fluency skills, as they navigate life’s many paths.

For Webster and his HCRI team, long-term relationships with clients enable them to witness the transforming effect fluency brings to people’s lives. “We find HCRI’s stuttering treatment program serves a catalyst for releasing human potential. Watching people have doors of opportunity open through fluent speech serves as a ‘living exhibit’ of the power of behavioral stuttering treatment,” Webster added.

About HCRI

Hollins Communications Research Institute was founded by Ronald L. Webster, Ph.D. in 1972 to investigate stuttering through scientific discovery and treatment innovation. Under Webster’s direction, Roanoke, Virginia-based HCRI, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, has become an international leader in stuttering research and the development of innovative, scientifically based therapy approaches. For more information, visit https://www.stuttering.org or contact HCRI at 540-265-5650 or admin@stuttering.org .

The following article appeared in the June 2011 issue of Valley Business FRONT magazine, which is published in Salem, Virginia. The publication’s website is  https://www.vbfront.com.

Executive Summary:  Professionals with speech problems face a difficult task, but help is available. Just ask Roanoke Colleges’ Gerald McDermott.

By David Perry

More than 68 million people worldwide stutter, according to the Stuttering Foundation. That’s about one percent of the world’s population. The numbers are similar in the United States, where about three million Americans have the communication disorder.

In a business world where image is frequently everything, it’s not a stretch to imagine that stuttering can hamper one’s professional life.

The Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI) in Roanoke County has helped more than 5,700 people with their stuttering problems. Roanoke College Professor of Religion Gerald McDermott has dealt with stuttering all his professional life as a school principal, professor and minister.

“It was always difficult, always frustrating,” says McDermott of trying to teach with a stutter. “There was lots of anxiety. I had to tell my classes sometimes to bear with me.  I’d just have to slow down and I’d still block and stop on sounds that I couldn’t get out of my mouth.”

His description of stuttering sounds much like how people who suffer from depression describe their outlook and the disorder is dealt with powerfully in the current hit movie “The King’s Speech.”

“You feel like you’re at the bottom of a pit,” McDermott says. “The walls are perfectly smoothed and greased and there are no hand holds. There is nothing you can do to get out of that pit.”

McDermott says even simple social interactions were challenging. “You feel humiliated because you’re in public situations. The conversation turns to you, and you block, and everyone wonders, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’”

He adds, “Speaking on the phone is difficult for a stutterer because you can’t control the conversation. As a school principal, I never liked parent assemblies because I had to make all these announcements.”

McDermott went through the program at HCRI about 20 years ago and today considers himself “fluent,” or able to control his stuttering. Today, in addition to teaching at Roanoke College, he also preaches at St. John’s Lutheran in southwest Roanoke County.

David Winship of Abingdon, a Washington County schools employee, was met with prejudice, ignorance and even a waiver from military service due to his stuttering.

“I simply could not talk,” says Winship. “It affected my social life. One of the administrators at the school told one of my closest friends, ‘Don’t associate with him because stuttering is a sign of homosexuality.’

“I was deferred from military service because of my stuttering.  I received a 4-F. They didn’t want me trying to warn others about what was happening and not be able to say it.”

Winship was one of the first people to take the HCRI program in the early 1970s and is fluent today.  “I consider it the miracle in my life,” he says. “It’s allowed me to be in the schools. I do public speaking, I do storytelling. I’m a member of the Rotary Club and I give the invocation and blessing every week.”

Shannon Taylor, a Dinwiddie County resident who works at DuPont in Richmond, knew her career couldn’t advance until she gained control of her stuttering.

“I was administrative assistant, and my stuttering had gotten so bad that I couldn’t even answer my own phone,” she says. “I had to let all my calls go to voice mail. I tried to do as much as I could via e-mail.

“That was not good for my career. As an administrative assistant I was meeting and greeting and escorting our customers all the time, and I always had difficulty with introductions.”

Taylor’s stuttering became so bad that she couldn’t order her own food at restaurants. While she took the HCRI course in 2003, she didn’t stick with the follow-up and soon regressed. She returned in 2009 determined to succeed and further her career.

“I have an excellent work ethic, and I have the support of my management and my coworkers, so they knew what I was capable of,” she says. “I knew there was a barrier there until I got my speech under control.”

After completing the program for the second time, she started a national support group for stutterers that hosts conference calls several times a week. She also joined Toastmasters and sought new leadership opportunities at DuPont.

Says Taylor, “I wanted the folks that I work with, especially my management, to know that I was taking this seriously.”

McDermott says, “Life for a stutterer is sometimes hell,” especially when it hampers one’s professional ambitions. But effective help is readily available.

Says Winship, “Fluency is wonderful.”

About HCRI

Hollins Communications Research Institute was founded by Ronald L. Webster, Ph.D. in 1972 to investigate stuttering through scientific discovery and treatment innovation. Under Dr. Webster’s direction, Roanoke, Virginia-based HCRI, a 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, has become an international leader in stuttering research and the development of innovative, scientifically based therapy approaches.

The Institute offers 17 stuttering therapy programs annually, each of which lasts 12 days. HCRI clinicians have treated nearly 6,000 people, aged 9 to 73, from across the U.S. and 47 other countries. Clients include broadcaster John Stossel of Fox News; Annie Glenn, wife of Senator and Astronaut John Glenn; as well as athletes, teachers, engineers, students, doctors, military personnel, business professionals, police officers, actors, and others from all walks of life. For more information, visit www.stuttering.org or contact HCRI at 540-265-5650 or admin@stuttering.org.

Hollins Communications Research Institute’s (HCRI) next-generation stuttering treatment program, Hollins Fluency Program: Advanced Speech Reconstruction for Stuttering™, has produced outstanding fluency outcomes among clients and proven effective across a full range of stuttering types and conditions.

Ninety-three percent of clients acquire fluent speech by the end of treatment and 70 to 75 percent maintain fluency for a lifetime. These numbers are among the highest in the industry for stuttering therapy.

HCRI’s 12-day, intensive stuttering treatment program is administered in groups of ten at a time by specially trained clinicians who are experts in stuttering. Treatment is highly individualized and conducted in Roanoke, Virginia at the Institute’s headquarters.

During  stuttering therapy, clients are taught with precision how to re-train and manage speech muscles that jump out of control with stuttering. As a result, people who stutter achieve new abilities to speak smoothly and spontaneously. Moreover, they are in full control of their speech for the first time in their lives.

The Hollins Fluency Program is a behavioral type of stuttering therapy, designed to address the physical cause of the disorder. HCRI researchers have dispelled common theories that stuttering is caused by emotional or mental issues.  The Institute’s scientific studies have consistently shown that stuttering is a physical condition produced by faulty muscle behaviors.

To address the core of the problem, HCRI pioneered physcally based stuttering therapy in the early 1970s.  Over the years, the Institute’s treatment program has been continually tested and refined, based on research with thousands of people who stutter ranging in age from 10 to 73.

The use of computers and advanced technologies have also been incorporated into the therapy process to make fluency learning easier for clients and help them retain fluent speech for a lifetime. In addition, HCRI utilizes highly sophisticated measurement and performance tracking tools that offer customized treatment and evaluation of each client’s progress in therapy.

For those who need extra assistance post-therapy to retain fluency skills, HCRI offers a comprehensive package of support tools that includes clinician follow-up, a computer-based practice program, refresher training courses, annual client reunions, and coordination of phone and in-person practice groups across the country.

About HCRI

Hollins Communications Research Institute, founded in 1972 by Ronald L. Webster, Ph.D., has grown into a world-leading center for the investigation and treatment of stuttering. The 501 (c) (3) nonprofit institute is unique from other stuttering organizations in that work focuses on developing scientifically based treatment methods, as well as administering stuttering therapy.

HCRI offers 17 stuttering therapy programs annually and has treated 6,000 people from across the U.S. and 23 other countries. Clients include John Stossel of Fox News; Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons; and Annie Glenn, wife of Senator and Astronaut John Glenn.

HCRI is located at 7851 Enon Drive, Roanoke, Virginia, 24019. For more information, visit www.stuttering.org . Contact HCRI at admin@stuttering.org or 540-265-5650.

Ronald L. Webster, Ph.D., Founder and President of the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI)responds to a question about former stuttering therapy client and broadcast journalist John Stossel. Mr. Stossel participated in HCRI’s advanced stuttering therapy program early in his career.

With HCRI’s scientifically based treatment, Mr. Stossel acquired the skills to speak fluently in all aspects of his life, which enabled him to significantly advance his career in national television. After an impressive tenure on ABC’s 20/20, Mr. Stossel now has his own program on Fox Network appropriated called “Stossel.”

Several people have asked about John Stossel’s stuttering when he was a young reporter. How did he manage to work as a TV reporter when he also stuttered?

The answer is quite straightforward. He did not appear live on air. His presentations were all recorded. For example, with interviews John would ask a question and the person who was being interviewed would reply. However, when John stuttered on questions, the producers would later shoot additional attempts of his asking the questions until they captured fluent examples. When aired, the report showed fluent Stossel questions and the interviewee’s responses—all through the magic of careful editing.

John was an excellent reporter with good instincts for stories and solid insights into how a story should be reported. The fact that his editors made accommodations for his stuttered speech underscores the high quality of his reporting.

As he began to appear live on air his anxieties about his stuttering increased. His on air stuttering occasionally tripped him up. He reported one instance of being suddenly asked to announce a brief midday newscast. He stuttered during one of his sentences and struggled to get a word out for so long that time ran out and he was taken off the air during the middle of a sentence.

It was only later, after completing our stuttering treatment program that John began to appear regularly on live TV. He has stated that our program was the only intervention that worked for him.

Mr. Stossel is one of more than 6,000 clients who have participated in HCRI’s stuttering therapy since the institute was founded by Dr. Webster in 1972. Over the years, HCRI has grown into a world-leading center for the investigation and treatment of stuttering. Research shows that 93 percent of clients achieve normal fluency after their 12-day intensive stuttering therapy program. Follow-up studies reveal 70 to 75% retain fluency for the long term.

The 501 (c) (3) nonprofit institute is unique from other stuttering organizations in that work focuses on developing scientifically based treatment methods, as well as administering stuttering therapy. For more information about the Roanoke, Viriginia institute, visit www.stuttering.org or call 540-265-5650.

Ronald L. Webster, Ph.D., Founder and President of the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI), shares how the non-profit Institute has used technology over the years to enhance the treatment of stuttering and the ease with which fluency is achieved during therapy. In addition, Dr. Webster provides insights on how technology will be applied in the future to advance stuttering treatment and access.

Here at HCRI we have an informal motto, “We need to invent the future. If we don’t do it, then we may not care for the future we get.” Our use of technology to give power and utility to our work on the treatment of stuttering represents years of adherence to our motto. The results have been remarkable. We have learned how to continue improving the technologies used in our stuttering treatment programs.

We have steadily built upon our experience in treating more than 5,700 persons who stutter. Our most recent advancements in stuttering treatment are incorporated in the development of the Hollins Fluency Program: Advanced Speech Reconstruction for Stuttering. This new program provides testimony to the merits of our “We need to invent the future” approach. All of what we do in this arena works to the long-term benefit of the clients whom we serve.

We have developed stuttering therapy programs at HCRI to take advantage of technologies that could improve the quality of initial fluency skill learning and thereby foster better long-term retention of fluent speech. Here is a quick look at how HCRI has implemented various electronic or computer technologies over the years. And, there is also a hint about new tools that are now on the horizon.

The first computers available to us were called minicomputers and they had limited memories and relatively slow processing speeds. We did succeed in developing a rather primitive speech processing program that could estimate the extent to which utterances embodied the energy profiles that signified correct or incorrect fluency target values.

In an article dealing with stuttering treatment and computers published in the Hollins College alumni magazine, we introduced people to an example of how new computing developments could be used to help establish fluent speech in people who stuttered. The article gained national attention for our work. Public demand for our therapy led to the founding of the Hollins Communications Research Institute in 1972.

Certain limitations were soon encountered with the computer. First, we could only use it with one client at a time. And, for that to happen all others terminals that accessed the central processor had to be shut down. Since a microcomputer cost about $60,000 in those days, we soon understood that we needed to find a less expensive way to measure speech characteristics in therapy and to provide feedback to our clients.

We went ahead to design a set of analog electronic circuits that could measure energy profiles in spoken sounds, syllables and words. This device became part of our first  systematic stuttering therapy, the Precision Fluency Shaping Program. At first, the device, we called it the Voice Monitor, could only evaluate single words. With determined effort we soon achieved the goal of evaluating successive syllables in polysyllabic words and then sentences. The device signaled with a green light whenever a correct target was detected. Errors were signaled by a non-response from the device.

During continuous speech, the green indicator lamp remained on until the device detected an erroneous response and shut the light off. Clients had to press a control button to activate the Voice Monitor for each trial with single syllable utterances or to reset the green light when an error was made in connected speech. In addition, there were three levels of energy profiles used within the Voice Monitor. Each level was used within a specific week of the treatment program.

The Voice Monitor went through a number of versions. Each one improved the quality of measurement, used better electronics, and became more practical and reliable in daily use. Clearly, we were on the right track. We had invented, patented, and reduced to practice a speech measurement tool that improved the quality of treatment at a cost level we could afford. Our clients had an easier time of learning and retaining fluency skills than they had previously. Our clinicians now had a tool that relieved them from the burdensome task of listing to and judging each spoken syllable and communicating the result to the client. The practical benefits of cost effective technology implementation were striking.

In 1984 we decided to make a transition from the Voice Monitor to the new Apple Macintosh computer. We called the new therapy program the Hollins Fluency System. The Mac allowed us to advance the reliability of treatment by adding two new teaching components and a new speech processing protocol. We found that we could present certain facts about speech to our clients and evaluate their learning and retention of the facts by means of the computer.

We also used the computer to present examples of correct and incorrectly spoken targets in order for clients to practice identifying appropriate and inappropriate responses. We designed and built a speech preprocessor module that connected to the Mac and was used to measure speech profile data, to score the accuracy of the client’s spoken responses and to signal the results of each judgment to the client. Additionally, the computer was used to collect and store performance data on each client. Clinicians could thus review performance details and provide any adjustments to the client’s program that might be called for.

In 1997 we completely rebuilt the therapy program and added networking to our system. Again, the quality, stability and clinical utility of our program improved. The precision of speech monitoring also improved due to our development of improved electronic speech preprocessing circuits based on new, advanced microchip designs.

During 2003 we released FluencyNet, our computer based home practice system for use by our alumni in validating target use and for practicing fluency skills at home or in the office. Many, many of our alums have used FluencyNet and have provided us with feedback that we used to enhance the user’s experience. In fact, lessons learned from FluencyNet were useful as we to created a new, improved version of our therapy program.

In 2008 we revised and rebuilt the program, again with advanced electronics, better and faster computers, and we established the program using a web-based format. We named this version of our therapy, the Hollins Fluency Program: Advanced Speech Reconstruction for Stuttering. This program is now in daily use within our clinic and is working exceedingly well. Improvements in this version, have increased the power and utility of treatment.

The essential point is that, in the near future, we will be creating several different methods for implementing remote access fluency skill training. Our intention is to conduct the first trials with refresher courses and then to move on to full remote access. Tests of the remote access system will begin in early 2010. Numerous details of procedure will need to be worked out as we go along. However, we are prepared to meet the challenges that come with innovation.

Our newest technology innovations arrived during 2009. We created new stuttering therapy applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch that expand the correct use of technology for improved client learning and retention of fluency skills. The new Voice Monitor application allows the user to talk into the hand held device and receive feedback about target accuracy in real world situations. While talking, the device records the client’s speech, scores the speech, and displays the results of the scoring on the screen. After completing the speech sample, the data file can be emailed to a clinician for immediate review. We are currently working on how to implement controlled distribution of the new software through the Apple iTunes store.

If you had been present at each step along the way in our technology developments, you would have noticed subtle changes in what and how we measured speech, how we provided feedback and how well our clients were acquiring and using fluency skills. If you had been present at the time of our first use of computers in therapy, and then returned today, you would be astonished at the developments that have taken place. Fluency generating targets are defined more clearly and comprehensively. Therapy details have been spelled out with increased precision. Linkages between and among targets have been made explicit. The physical measurement of speech signals has been dramatically improved, as have the feedback procedures now in place.

One of the great benefits of our developing new technologies is that they can be evaluated against our substantial base of experience with our own previous technologies. Our knowledge about technology development as an integral component of therapy is substantial. It is quite probable that HCRI has used electronic and computer technologies within stuttering therapy more than the rest of the world combined!

We are now at a place where we have designed and are building advanced digital speech processing circuits that will dramatically increase the range and details of speech and speech associated behaviors that can be measured, evaluated and used to improve fluency skill training. In effect, our “speech microscope” will open a new world of technology innovations within our stuttering therapy program. New diagnostic tools, new types of training within therapy and new forms of treatment outreach will change major features in the treatment of stuttering. All of what is coming has been made possible through the depth and scope of our experiences in working directly with electronics, computers and speech. We are excited by the prospects!

About HCRI

Hollins Communications Research Institute, founded in 1972 by Ronald L. Webster, Ph.D., has grown into a world-leading center for the investigation and treatment of stuttering. The 501 (c) (3) nonprofit institute is unique from other stuttering organizations in that work focuses on developing scientifically based treatment methods, as well as administering stuttering therapy.

More than 6,000 people from 48 countries have come to HCRI for stuttering therapy. HCRI is located at 7851 Enon Drive, Roanoke, Virginia, 24019. Contact HCRI at admin@stuttering.org or 540-265-5650. For video speech samples and more information, visit www.stuttering.org.