Due to renewed interest in lateralized cerebral hemispheric functions (cerebral dominance), the authors review the history and current status of six areas of inquiry relevant to this topic: (1) Autopsy Studies, (2) Handedness Correlates, (3) Cortico-anatomical Techniques, (4) Intracarotid Sodium Amytal Technique, (5) Dichotic Techniques, and (6) Dichoptic Techniques. The final two categories are of particular interest because of the potential they offer for clarifying key issues pertinent to the nature and remediation of language and learning disabilities.

The “consistency effect” has been proffered as evidence that stuttering is basically a response to fear-producing stimuli inherent in certain words. To assess consistency in relatively spontaneous speech, each of 16 stutterers gave continuous word associations from which 18 stuttered (experimental) and 18 nonstuttered (control) words matched for length, initial phoneme, and familiarity were selected for each subject. Subjects then produced each of the 36 words in three sentences and read them as a list. The hypothesis to be tested was that significantly more experimental than control words would be restuttered. Grouped totals suggest support for the hypothesis, but inspection of the data reveal that the performance of only a few subjects provided the margin of difference. Moreover, other factors also appear influential in determining the recurrence of stuttering. These results suggest that the term consistency as presently used is misleading, hypotheses concerning stuttering based on the notion of a consistency effect are not tenable, and an account of the loci of repeated occurrences of stuttering must penetrate beyond the word level.

Considering the success of the children's television program, “Sesame Street,” the authors suggest that it may be feasible to program language stimulation activities in a similar manner. A challenge to the field of learning disabilities is presented in terms of (1) investigating the need for such a program, (2) arriving at the most beneficial approach to language stimulation, and (3) recommending a course of action.

This study represents an attempt to test the hypothesis (derived from the motor theory of speech perception) that persons who have stuttered for many years will be less facile than nonstutterers at decoding time-compressed speech. 4 stutterers and 4 nonstutterers answered questions and rewrote paragraphs and sentences presented at various rates of compression. An inspection of the results suggests no support for the hypothesis; implications for future research are offered.

A group of 20 stutterers and matched controls were shown movie film segments of ten persons reported to be listening to individual speakers. The subjects were asked (a) to indicate if the unseen speaker were a stutterer, a nonstutterer, or “can’t tell,” and (b) to describe each listener’s reaction. Results reveal that the identifications and descriptions from stutterers were comparable in all respects to those of nonstutterers.