Device May Help Stop Stutter

Aug. 1, 2001 -- -- Wesley Cook is, in most regards, a success. An adored big brother and popular college senior who is graduating this December first in his class. And he's accomplished all that in spite of a very real handicap that's been almost impossible to beat — stuttering.

His parents watched him struggle with his disorder for two decades, wishing they could do anything to help their son.

"For there to be even a chance that he could be helped at all and help boost his self esteem and self-confidence is a miracle," says his mother, Debbie Cook. "It's just something we've wished for so long — for him to talk."

Joe Kalinowski knows the feeling all too well. "I see the pain in these children and I go, 'Oh, now I remember.'"

"I prayed every night," he says. "Take off my arm, God, because I know kids will tease me for not having an arm. But if I can talk the same as every other kid, that'll be OK. And I'd get up and the arm was still there. And I'd begin to talk and the stutter was still there. And I'd turn up to the heavens and say 'you didn't do it.' I guess he had another purpose."

That little boy grew up to become a speech therapist at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., and one of three inventors of a device that would change his life, and the lives of stutterers like him.

They call it the "SpeechEasy Device." Developed at the university, the gadget fits in the canal of one ear and works like a small PA system, complete with microphone, amplifier, and speaker. It delivers delayed and altered voice feedback to the stutterer, tricking the brain into thinking that another person is speaking, too.

"Experts aren't exactly sure why this works, but they do know from previous research speaking in unison with one or more people inhibits stuttering," explains ABCNEWS Medical Editor Dr. Timothy Johnson, on Good Morning America.

Researchers have yet to discover the cause of stuttering, although data points to four compounding factors: genetics, neurophysiology (how the brain works), child development, and family dynamics.

According to Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation of America, more than 50 percent of people who stutter have a family member with the condition.