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
We talked briefly a couple of months ago but I never really got a chance to tell you how I have been. Well, it's been great.
When I came to the program at EVMS in Summer of 2002 I was struggling to stay in the Army Special Forces Qualification Course. Well, I graduated. I got my Green Beret. It was a tough road because I was still nervous about my speech, but it was no where near what it was before.
Now I'm in Iraq on a great team with some great guys. It’s awesome being able to sit down and have complete conversations without wondering if I will get out the next sentence. I even got a chance to teach a platoon of Iraqi Army soldiers on military operations. It was wonderful. My teammates will never understand why I talk so much. I tell them it’s because I have over 20 years to catch up on, so I have work to do. I don’t even care if I say something completely stupid as long as I get to say it...