It's just beginning. . .

From: Judy Kuster
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:25:35 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Sheree, Stefan, and Dr. Li, 

Thank you for a fascinating account. It is hard for those of us with such easy access to information (in our libraries, on
the internet, and through universities, hospitals, through the Stuttering Foundation of America, and self-help
organizations) to imagine the enormity of the task of ultimately bringing services to persons who stutter in China. I am
tremendously impressed with the dedication and the efforts being made so far. I think Stefan's focus on developing a
strong self- help network will be very important for the many people who will not be able to afford and/or have no access
therapy. And I think Dr. Li's efforts to bring information to his colleagues and to raise awareness about stuttering is
wonderful. Last year our local NSSHLA chapter shipped several boxes of books about communication disorders to
Bulgaria. Realizing that translation issues are major barriers, would a similar collection of such items be of any use at this
time for Dr. Li or his associates in China? 

Re: It's just beginning. . .

From: Sheree Reese
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:26:04 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Thanks for the kind words, Judy. I've written to Dr. Li and asked him what materials he would find helpful (and
manageable in terms of translating) and will post his response when it comes. 

Re: It's just beginning. . .

From: Stefan Hoffmann and Li Shengli, Beijing
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:27:18 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

We are happy to find so encouraging words as you wrote them. In fact it is a giant task to develop awareness and means
of therapy here in China. The biggest obstacle is the lack of people's insight into the problem. At the moment we are
translating some leaflets of the SFA, and after this is done, neat printouts will be available to be distributed. This is a first
small project. Anything additional to this would surpass our today's personnel and time ressources, so that we today are
fine with the material we got. Later more info will be welcome from abroad. A chinese saying goes: "To achieve great
things, start with the small". Encouragement from abroad is already a great achievement. Thank you! Stefan Hoffmann,
Li Shengli Beijing, China 

Chinese doctoral student

From: Joe Kalinowski
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:27:50 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

During my studies at University of Connecticut and at Haskins Laboratories, I worked with a number of Chinese doctoral
students--primarily in linguistics-- but a couple in both linguistics and speech-pathology. You might want to contact the
students or research staff at Haskins Laboratories to start some sort of interaction with those Chinese students here in the
States who have been working in the field of linguistics and/or speech-pathology. These individuals would know your
language (at least one of the many of your nation) and the culture. 

You must remember that I left there in 1991 and many have moved on, but they have left e-mail addresses and means of
contact.. 

Just an idea.. 

http://macserver.haskins.yale.edu/haskins/STAFF/staff.html 

Re: Chinese doctoral student

From: Sheree Reese
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:28:16 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Thank you for the suggestion, Joe. It might prove very helpful. Dr. Li gave me the gift of a copy of his textbook, and I
could use some help with the translation back to English. In addition, we are discussing coauthoring an article in Chinese,
so I would probably find this contact very helpful with this project. 

Re: Chinese doctoral student

From: Stefan Hoffmann
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:28:55 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Hi Joe, it is very important to have contact persons abroad from CHina. A network is still nonexistent here, so that people
here in Beijing sometimes do not know of an activity in Shanghai, as happened last MAy. Best is to have people, who
sometimes come back here to CHina and report about latest research developments and therapy methods. By the way, due
to a business trip I will not be able to participate in the ISAD 99 "Self-help Test Run" here in Beijing with Prof. Li's
patients. We plan to do it in November then. Stefan 

stuttering in China

From: Pete Amberg
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:29:26 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Hello Sheree. My name is Pete, a Comm. Dis. grad student at Minnesota State Univ, Mankato. Your article had me
thinking of areas of Speech Pathology and stuttering that I honestly never gave much thought to. That being stuttering in
different languages. What are the most common types of disfluency in Chinese? (prolongations, part/whole word reps,
etc.) Are there any common types? 

Another startling thought is the incidence rate compared to how much knowledge there is of the subject. It is
discomforting to know that many PWS are not only not receiving any services but are not even aware of where to go for
help. 

Unfortunate also is the attitudes towards PWS and jobs. Those attitudes are expressed in all places in the world,
unfortunately, and todays society has many barriers to break down to allow opportunities to all. 

Good luck to Stefan and his work with his self-help group. 

Pete 

Re: stuttering in China

From: Sheree Reese
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:29:51 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Hi Pete, 

Thanks for the comments and good question. There obviously hasn't been much research on the topic there but I would
expect that the characteristics are not much different from those with which we are familiar . We do have a body of
research available on cross-cultural attitudes towards communication disorders and information about specific
communication characteristics and issues for Asion speakers but I haven't seen any on patterns of dysfluency. Perhaps
someone else can add information here. Sounds like a good project to discuss with Dr. Li. 

Re: stuttering in China

From: James Au-Yeung
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:30:18 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

On the topic on cross-linguistic study on stuttering. We are currently carrying out such studies at University College
London. So far, we have limited speech recording on Spanish and German stuttering samples and have done limited
analysis on them as compare to our theory of stuttering built around English phonology. We have major problems in
acquiring speech samples and I have spend the past year just doing when I have graduate students from Germany and
Spain to analyze the data. We are currently writing up the results of our findings in both German and Spanish. In
discussion with Nan Bernstein Ratner in the summer, we wish very much to set up a database of speech from PWS from
different language background for research purpose and we are presently actively seeking recording in Japan and Hong
Kong for Japanese and Cantonese recordings. Currently, we are also comparing stuttering behavior of both Spanish and
English in bilingual speakers to see the language influence in a single production system. 

James Au-Yeung Dept. of Psychology, University College London james@psychol.ucl.ac.uk 

Re: stuttering in China

From: Pete Amberg
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:30:53 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

James, 

I know your studies are not complete, but what kinds of similiar/different behaviors are you noticing? 

Also, who observes the behaviors- Spanish speaking only, bilingual, or English speaking only clinicians? 

Pete 

Re: stuttering in China

From: James Au-Yeung
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:31:20 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

The main difference we have found so far is that Spanish PWS have less dysfluencies in content words that English PWS
while function words are more or less the same. The study is trying to test our theory on stuttering published in JSLHR,
Au-Yeung, Howell & Pilgrim (1998) and Howell, Au-Yeung & Sackin (1999) where a developmental trend is also
observed in stuttering on function and content words. 

In answer to your second question, the dysfluencies were located by a native Spanish speech scientist from Spain who
also speak English. We are at present planning to test the judgment & location of dysfluencies in Spanish by non-Spanish
speaking English speakers and compare them to judgment by native Spanish speakers and maybe Spanish L2 speakers.
This work is to study if a language model is needed in an automized system for detecting dysfluencies [work presented at
IFA at San Francisco]. 

James Au-Yeung 

Re: stuttering in China

From: Stefan Hoffmann, Beijing
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:31:49 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Hello everybody, I might add a short note. My experience after learning 7 languages (Eng, Fre, Lat, Span, Russ, Jap,
and Chinese) is that my own pattern of stuttering stays the same although there languages offer various kinds of
pronounciations. I have always problems with voiceless "h" and multiple konsonants. People saying that the chinese
"singing" of their language would prevent from stuttering, is not really a true story. Your work in London seems very
interesting to me. You may meet Dr Li next year at IFA congress in Denmark. Stefan 

Brave New World

From: Suzanne Danforth
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:32:20 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

To the authors: 

I was most impressed by the description of Dr. Li and colleagues' desire to identify stuttering as a legitimate entity in a
near absence of literature. In addition, the ability of the team at the Rehab Medicine Department of Capital University of
Medical Science to shake off cultural presdisposition toward stuttering as stigma is commendable. 

Re: Brave New World

From: Sheree Reese
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:32:46 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Thanks for your comments, Suzanne...I agree that Dr. Li's efforts (and accomplishments) are quite remarkable.

ShenYang Center For Speech Fluency

From: Han Yan Wei
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 11:33:55 AM
Remote Name: 134.29.30.79

Comments

Your achievements in stuttering-correction is observed by web-site. We have sincere intention to cooperate with you in
stuttering-correction for speech fluency. So we send our telephone number, address to your place. We are looking
forward to your confirmation. 

Brief introduction of our center: It's a relatively large professional stuttering-correction center in China. It runs as long as
ten years. We have served thousands of patients. Our medical team is quite well-educated. They're professions,
postgraduates and graduates. Our quality of treatment has enjoyed distinguished honour from all media. Moreover, we
have published several academic papers on the national journals. 

ShenYang Center For Speech Fluency, China Address: No.7 You Hao Street Shen He District Shen Yang, China
Postcode: 110013 Tel: 0086-24-22511194 Fax: 0086-24-88423163 hanyanwei@sina.com 

Re: ShenYang Center For Speech Fluency

From: Sheree Reese
Date: 10/24/99
Time: 7:51:56 PM
Remote Name: 152.163.201.46

Comments

Thank you for telling us about your center. I will try to ensure that Dr. Li receives the information. I would also like to
communicate with you and will contact you soon.