ORONO – University of Maine professor Marybeth Allen has an invisible disability – she stutters. She’s in good company, sharing the disorder with the likes of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, country music star Mel Tillis, actor James Earl Jones, television journalist John Stossel, and Annie Glenn, wife of former astronaut and U.S. Sen. John Glenn.

Allen, who recently has established a local support group for teens and adults who stutter, is a speech pathologist who teaches in the department of communication sciences and disorders at UM. Most days, no one would notice more than an occasional, barely perceptible hitch in her conversation as the stream of words finds its way through the complex pathway between her brain and her lips – a process she says took years of professional help to develop.

Sometimes, though, she still finds herself struggling to make herself understood as the sounds of language refuse to form or flow. The unpredictability of these episodes still makes her hesitate before picking up the phone to call a stranger who might not understand that a perfectly normal person, who happens to stutter, is on the other end of the line.

“Our fast-paced society is not kind to stutterers,” Allen said in an interview in her office on Wednesday morning. “People who stutter think, ‘This next hour, when I open my mouth, how bad will my stuttering be? What will people think of me?’ People build up a lot of emotional baggage, and it can seriously interfere with their life goals.”

For many individuals, she said, an evident stutter is only the most visible manifestation of a more insidious disorder.

“It’s like an iceberg,” Allen said. “It’s not just a superficial problem.”

Because stuttering typically develops early in life – age 2 to 4 is the most common time for it to become apparent – affected individuals are vulnerable to developing a high level of personal frustration, a negative self-image and a lifetime fear of situations in which they will be called on to communicate.

There is no connection between stuttering and intelligence, Allen said. It is not a psychological problem and it is not an indication of nervousness. While the phenomenon is poorly understood, it is known to have many variations. Treatment consists primarily of speech therapy, behavioral intervention and psychological support to rebuild damaged self-confidence.

Even with help, most people are never completely rid of the tendency to stutter. But as Allen demonstrates, they can learn to keep it from overshadowing their lives and go on to meet their personal and professional goals.

There are several support groups for stutterers in Maine. Allen’s group for teens and adults meets monthly and is looking for new members. With support from the National Stuttering Association, the group seeks to provide emotional support, education and resources for improvement to stutterers and others affected by the disorder, which is defined as a disability by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The support group meets from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month in the basement of Dunn Hall, near Alfond Arena on the UM campus in Orono. For more information about the group and local resources, call Allen at 944-8045.

For information about stuttering, including an upcoming national conference in the New York City area for stutterers and their families, visit www.nsastutter.org.

mhaskell@bangordailynews.net

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