Our Program
The Eastern Virginia Medical School Fluency Program treats stuttering as a behavioral problem. We do not perceive stuttering as the consequence of a complex emotional disorder. We can confidently say that after decades of helping stutterers, the proper approach to treating this perplexing, long-standing affliction is to accurately redevelop the physical properties of speech.
The EVMS Fluency Program employs laboratory derived principles of learning in the development of new speech skills. During the therapy program, physical mechanisms used in the production of speech are precisely and systematically retrained. Participants in the EVMS Fluency Program relearn the proper means of producing the elementary sounds of speech. The stutterers then rebuild their ability to correctly produce syllables, words and, ultimately, complete sentences.
In The News
- Read ANN LANDERS' column, where she says "Program may be answer for those who stutter..."
- Virginia Pilot newspaper - Front page, Sunday, December 26, 2015. The Gift of Speech: Students come from across the globe to tackle stuttering.
- Watch the CBS news story covering Ross Barrett and his successful program graduates.
- WVEC-TV Interview with Ross Barrett
Patient Testimonials
Ross S. Barrett, M.A., CCC/SLP
Instructor of Clinical Otolaryngology
EVMS Fluency Program Director
Board Recognized Fluency Specialist
Learn more about Ross Barrett
I just thought I'd let you know how my day was today. Today I had to give a presentation in my psychology class on a disorder. And I had been dreading this all semester long. And this morning I was so nervous I could barely breathe. I listened to one of the CD's before class today, and I was really concentrating on my full breaths all day.
As I got up there to speak I thought I was going to choke. And then when the instructor looked at me to give the go ahead to start, I took a big beautiful full breath of air and my targets just flowed out and every word after that just seem to follow as perfectly. The whole 5 minutes I was up there, every sentence was flawless.
I have never felt so wonderful about speaking in public my whole entire life. After class was over, I got in my car and the happy tears of joy just went crazy! I couldn’t believe how well I did and I haven’t felt that way in a LONG time...