Proclamation 5795 --
National Stuttering Awareness Week, 1988
By
the President of the
A
Proclamation
The
uniquely human ability to communicate thoughts through speech allows us to
share our ideas almost as quickly as they occur, with little conscious effort.
But for the more than three million Americans who stutter, speech is associated
with struggle. Rapid-fire repetitions of sounds, prolonged vowels, and verbal
blocks disrupt the smooth and easy flow of speech and limit the spontaneous
exchange of ideas and feelings. Many stutterers
suffer frustration and embarrassment that can lead to harmful emotional stress.
Stuttering
has a tendency to be inherited, and it affects four times as many males as
females. Children usually outgrow stuttering before reaching adulthood. When
the disorder continues or begins in adults, it is considered chronic and very
difficult to control.
Just
what causes stuttering is not yet known, but research is providing clues. In
normal speech, the brain and more than 100 muscles of the vocal system work
together to produce fluent sounds. Within the larynx, one set of muscles
contracts to pull the vocal folds apart and works in close coordination with
the set of muscles that allows the folds to close. In stuttered speech,
however, these muscle sets do not coordinate properly, preventing normal
movement of the vocal folds.
Focusing
on this specific malfunction, scientists at the National Institute of
Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (NINCDS) have developed a
promising, but as yet experimental, treatment for severe chronic adult stutterers. Injections to the larynx temporarily paralyze
one of the muscles, easing the disruptive tug-of-war between opposing muscles
and thereby improving speech.
The
NINCDS leads the Federal government's research effort on stuttering, funding
projects around the country in addition to conducting studies in its own
laboratories. Research supported by private voluntary health agencies adds to
the growing pool of knowledge. These private organizations also provide
invaluable counseling and other services to stutterers
and their families. Together, Federal and private groups call attention to
simple ways the public can help; for example, many stutterers
actually improve their speech when listeners know to be patient and supportive.
To
enhance public awareness of stuttering, the Congress, by Public Law 100 - 263,
has designated the period of May 9 through May 15, 1988, as ``National
Stuttering Awareness Week'' and authorized and requested the President to issue
a proclamation in observance of that event.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of April, in
the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, and of the
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed with the Office
of the Federal Register,