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Thanks for the excellent issue of The ASHA Leader of Oct. 18, 2005 dedicated to international activity in stuttering. The coverage is impressive, showing innovation, providing good representation and interesting exposition of the progress achieved around the world. The issue vividly reflects ASHA's efforts to heighten its members' awareness of the global status of our profession and thus likely increase international cooperation that is bound to vastly increase knowledge about human communication and its disorders.
This is, by far, the thrust of the issue that dwarfs other considerations. Although often the therapeutic procedures described have borrowed from either traditional or more recent techniques employed here, there are indications of new ideas, such as those expressed by the authors from India, Sweden, and Italy. These, of course, require more experimental scrutiny. Obviously, some countries have lagged behind the United States in initiating and developing the field. But they are likely to step up the pace.
I have been fortunate to visit with colleagues and talk in 15 countries or more. The Stuttering Research Program at the University of Illinois has ongoing cooperative studies in Israel, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In several countries, such as Japan and Israel, extremely sophisticated technologies are used in stuttering research. Can you imagine our advancement when countries such as India and China, applying such technologies, will conduct studies with samples of 300-500 participants instead of 15-20 typically employed here? So, thanks again for a most inspiring issue.
Ehud Yairi
Urbana-Champaign, IL
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