The “monster” Study

The diagnosogenic (semantogenic) theory for the onset of stuttering was initially proposed by Wendell Johnson in the early 1940s. It suggested that calling attention to a child’s normal hesitations (repetitions) could precipitate stuttering (Bloodstein, 1987). Some of the evidence that Johnson used to support this theory (e.g., certain tribes of American Indians, in which there appeared to be no stutterers, had no word for stuttering) is currently regarded as questionable (Bloodstein, 1987). The theory does not appear to be as widely accepted now as it was during the past 30 years, judging by the fact that many speech pathologists are recommending to parents that they make their children aware of their hesitations rather than ignoring them (Bloodstein, 1987). If you wanted to directly test this theory, how would you do it? One way would be to take some normally fluent children, react adversely to their hesitations, and see if they turned into stutterers. This was done in an M.A. thesis that was directed by Wendell Johnson in the late 1930s (Tudor, 1939). The findings of this study and the events that occurred subsequent to its completion have never been published. It was labeled the “monster” study by some of the persons who were associated with the Stuttering Research Program at the University of Iowa during the 1940s and 1950s and who knew of its existence. This study and the events that presumably occurred following it are described here. Its findings are of more than historical interest because it is, to the best of my knowledge, the most direct test of the diagnosogenic theory to date. Also, its findings have implications for clinicans whose approach to the treatment of stuttering in young children includes increasing the children’s awareness of their hesitations.