WMU Professor Hope Gerlach-Houck is an expert in fluency disorders such as stuttering. She says people who stutter are more likely to experience depression and anxiety than people who don’t. And it’s likely discrimination is a major reason for that.
Gerlach has designed a study where adults who stutter will be asked to recount their experiences several times a day on an app. That will allow them to track their experiences in real time and give people around the country a chance to take part in the study.
“What we’re trying to get at here is how big is the role discrimination and mental health adversity that people who stutter experience.”
Gerlach-Houck got a grant from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation for the research.