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Opening Arguments

Stutter step

Uh-oh, Purdue reaally screwed up, letting its name be used on a study that isn't a pointless, expensive research into the obvious but might actually be useful:

Purdue University professors earned a federal grant that will help them understand what’s behind childhood stuttering and why some kids grow out of the problem.

Professors Anne Smith and Christine Weber-Fox, who lead the Purdue Stuttering Project, received a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study stuttering. They hope the money will help them develop a speech therapy screening tool to help identify which kids are likely to grow out of the problem and which ones need therapy.

During the five-year project, the professors will follow 100 children who stutter. The children will complete several different standardized tests. At the end, the professors will compare the results of those tests and see which children still stutter and which ones have grown out of it. Smith and Weber-Fox will then use those results to develop clinical tests designed to identify kids at high risk for stuttering.

Guess I like it because it's old-fashioned in its way, relying on observations to spot patters rather than assuming gene research and nano technology will some day be able to fix everything. Since 75 percent of stutterers grow out of it, it should be achievable to find out what they have in common and use that knowledge to help the other 25 percent.

Posted in: Hoosier lore
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