Einer Boberg

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Einer Boberg (1935 – October 1, 1995) [1] was a Danish-Canadian [2] speech pathologist who specialized in the study of stuttering [3] and its treatment. From 1971 to 1995, he was a Professor of Speech Pathology in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton Canada. [4] In 1986, together with Deborah Kully, he founded the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research (ISTAR). [5] He was particularly known for his advocacy of post-treatment maintenance of fluency, including the benefits of self-help groups. In 1991, he became the first President of the International Fluency Association.

Contents

Early life

Boberg was born Ejnar Bidstrup Bovbjerg, the son of Danish immigrant parents, Søren Bovbjerg and Ellen Bidstrup, in Dalum, Alberta, a farming community near Drumheller, Alberta, in 1935. [6] He was himself a severe stutterer. As a young man he intended to become a violinist and enrolled in the music program at St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minnesota, but had to return to Alberta without a degree when his father died in 1959. He then went to Vienna, Austria, to continue his violin studies, where he met his wife, Julia Sluce; they were married in England in 1960. Traumatized by his inability to speak with his in-laws, he sought stuttering therapy in London and redirected his future plans toward helping others afflicted by stuttering. He enrolled in a Master's program in Speech Pathology at the University of Iowa, where he studied with Wendell Johnson, and then a Ph.D. in Speech Pathology at the University of Minnesota.

Professional contributions

Throughout his career, Boberg researched, wrote and made presentations about the causes of and treatments for stuttering. [7]

Boberg's work at the University of Alberta and at ISTAR focused on the development of treatment programs for both children and adults based on principles of behavior modification and operant conditioning, and particularly on the work of Charles Van Riper. Clients were first given intensive therapy over a period of weeks, which was designed to minimize disfluencies and associated behaviors through the learning of fluency skills. They were then directed to practice their skills outside the clinic, in order to overcome social anxieties associated with stuttering; to return periodically for refresher clinics; and to participate in self-help groups, in which fellow stutterers could share experiences and work on fluency maintenance in a supportive environment. Boberg and colleague Deborah Kully conducted a long-term study of clinical outcomes which supported the effectiveness of this approach. [8] [9] The clinical program implemented at ISTAR was set forth in several publications, including Maintenance of Fluency in 1981 and Comprehensive Stuttering Program in 1985. [10] [11]

Toward the end of his career, Boberg became interested in the neuropsychological basis of stuttering and its implications for treatment [12]

Personal life

Despite having given up music as a career, Boberg maintained a lifelong interest in it, playing chamber music with friends, serving as President of the Edmonton Youth Orchestra and singing, with his wife, in Edmonton's Richard Eaton Singers He died in 1995 in Edmonton, after a short battle with cancer. [6]

Publications

Related Research Articles

Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the person who stutters is unable to produce sounds. The term stuttering is most commonly associated with involuntary sound repetition, but it also encompasses the abnormal hesitation or pausing before speech, referred to by people who stutter as blocks, and the prolongation of certain sounds, usually vowels or semivowels. According to Watkins et al., stuttering is a disorder of "selection, initiation, and execution of motor sequences necessary for fluent speech production". For many people who stutter, repetition is the main concern. The term "stuttering" covers a wide range of severity, from barely perceptible impediments that are largely cosmetic to severe symptoms that effectively prevent oral communication. Almost 70 million people worldwide stutter, about 1% of the world's population.

Speech disorders or speech impairments are a type of communication disorder where normal speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute. Speech disorders affect roughly 11.5% of the US population. Speech is a complex process that requires precise timing, nerve and muscle control. The ability to understand language and produce speech is coordinated by the brain. A person who suffers from a stroke, an accident or birth defect may have speech and language problems.

Wendell Johnson was an American psychologist, author and was a proponent of general semantics. He was born in Roxbury, Kansas and died in Iowa City, Iowa where most of his life's work was based. The Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center, which houses the University of Iowa's speech pathology and audiology programs, is named after him. Aside from his contributions to speech–language pathology, he is known for the experiment he created with Mary Tudor nicknamed "The Monster Study" for the damage it did to its human subjects.

Cluttering is a speech and communication disorder characterized by a rapid rate of speech, erratic rhythm, and poor syntax or grammar, making speech difficult to understand.

Palilalia, a complex tic, is a language disorder characterized by the involuntary repetition of syllables, words, or phrases. It has features resembling other complex tics such as echolalia or coprolalia, but, unlike other aphasias, palilalia is based upon contextually correct speech.

Pressure of speech is a tendency to speak rapidly and frenziedly. Pressured speech is motivated by an urgency that may not be apparent to the listener. The speech produced is difficult to interpret.

Telerehabilitation Delivery of rehabilitation services over the internet

Telerehabilitation (or e-rehabilitation is the delivery of rehabilitation services over telecommunication networks and the internet. Telerehabilitation allows patients to interact with providers remotely and can be used both to assess patients and to deliver therapy. Fields of medicine that utilize telerehabilitation include: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, audiology, and psychology. Therapy sessions can be individual or community-based. Types of therapy available include motor training exercises, speech therapy, virtual reality, robotic therapy, goal setting, and group exercise.

Speech–language pathology Disability therapy profession

Speech–language pathology is a field of expertise practiced by a clinician known as a speech–language pathologist (SLP) or a speech and language therapist, both of whom may be known by the shortened description, speech therapist. Speech–language pathology is considered a "related health profession" or "allied health profession", along with audiology, optometry, occupational therapy, rehabilitation psychology, physical therapy, behavior analysis and others.

The following is a list of the faculties and departments of the University of Alberta.

Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), also called delayed sidetone, is a type of altered auditory feedback that consists of extending the time between speech and auditory perception. It can consist of a device that enables a user to speak into a microphone and then hear their voice in headphones a fraction of a second later. Some DAF devices are hardware; DAF computer software is also available. Most delays that produce a noticeable effect are between 50-200 milliseconds (ms). DAF usage has been shown to induce mental stress.

David A. Daly is a fluency author, researcher, and center owner.

The Monster Study was a stuttering experiment performed on 22 orphan children in Davenport, Iowa in 1939. It was conducted by Wendell Johnson at the University of Iowa. Graduate student Mary Tudor conducted the experiment under Johnson's supervision. Half of the children received positive speech therapy, praising the fluency of their speech, and the other half, negative speech therapy, belittling the children for speech imperfections. Many of the normal speaking orphan children who received negative therapy in the experiment suffered negative psychological effects, and some retained speech problems for the rest of their lives.

Electronic fluency device

Electronic fluency devices are electronic devices intended to improve the fluency of persons who stutter. Most electronic fluency devices change the sound of the user's voice in his or her ear.

Fluency

Fluency is the property of a person or of a system that delivers information quickly and with expertise.

Stuttering therapy is any of the various treatment methods that attempt to reduce stuttering to some degree in an individual. Stuttering can be a challenge to treat because there is a lack of evidence-based consensus about therapy. Some believe that there is no cure for the condition.

Charles Gage Van Riper was a renowned speech therapist who became internationally known as a pioneer in the development of speech pathology. A severe stutterer throughout his career, he is described as having had the most influence of any speech-language pathologist in the field of stuttering.

Speech and language impairment are basic categories that might be drawn in issues of communication involve hearing, speech, language, and fluency.

Kim Solez

Kim Solez is an American pathologist and co-founder of the Banff Classification, the first standardized international classification for renal allograft biopsies. He is also the founder of the Banff Foundation for Allograft Pathology.

The University of Alberta Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is home to North America's only free-standing faculty of rehabilitation medicine and is composed of three departments, 11 research groups, six student clinics and programs and five institutes and centres. It provides academic training in rehabilitation science, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language pathology.

References

  1. ↑ Shamez Kassam (May 1996). "IN MEMORY OF DR. EINER BOBERG". CAPS Newsletter.
  2. ↑ Marc Shell (30 June 2009). Stutter. Harvard University Press. pp. 237–. ISBN   978-0-674-04353-4.
  3. ↑ Marc Shell (2005). Stutter . Harvard University Press. pp.  27–. ISBN   978-0-674-01937-9.
  4. ↑ Benson Bobrick (11 January 2011). Knotted Tongues: Stuttering in History and the Quest for a Cure. Simon and Schuster. pp. 35–. ISBN   978-1-4516-2856-2.
  5. ↑ "We Day makes impression at local school" Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine . St. Albert Gazette. Apr 13, 2013, by: Scott Hayes
  6. 1 2 "Einer Boberg".
  7. ↑ Marc Shell (2005). Polio and its Aftermath . Harvard University Press. pp.  291–. ISBN   978-0-674-01315-5.
  8. ↑ Oliver Bloodstein (1993). Stuttering: The Search for a Cause and Cure. Allyn and Bacon. p. 116. ISBN   978-0-205-13845-6.
  9. ↑ Jock A. Carlisle (1985). Tangled tongue: living with a stutter. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-0-8020-2558-6.
  10. ↑ Jaan Pill. "Einer Boberg's Contribution to the Self-Help Movement".
  11. ↑ Barry Guitar (29 January 2013). Stuttering: An Integrated Approach to Its Nature and Treatment. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 311–. ISBN   978-1-60831-004-3.
  12. ↑ Boberg, Einer (ed). 1993. The Neuropsychology of Stuttering. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.
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