{"id":144939,"date":"2025-01-31T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=144939"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:40:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:40:02","slug":"discovering-what-is-rarely-spoken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/discovering-what-is-rarely-spoken\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering What Is Rarely Spoken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pegasus Professor Martine Vanryckeghem does not avoid difficult conversations. As a world-renowned researcher on fluency disorders, Vanryckeghem knows the path to progress has to go through the most uncomfortable words. So, she talks openly about her primary research<\/a> interest \u2014 stuttering \u2014 everywhere she goes: In clinical settings, in classes at UCF, and on platforms around the world. She recently delivered a keynote address at the International Conference on Stuttering in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cStuttering isn\u2019t a bad word,\u201d Vanryckeghem says. \u201cWe need to talk about it and reduce the stigma instead of pretending it doesn\u2019t exist. This is a global issue that impacts millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people include Marc Anthony, Joe Biden, Steve Harvey, Bo Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Kendrick Lamar, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Ed Sheeran, John Stossel and Tiger Woods. The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so many children,\u201d Vanryckeghem says. \u201cThey usually suffer alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanryckeghem\u2019s research and her clinical therapy start with a simple yet overlooked concept: listening \u2014 really <\/em>listening. Not just to the bumpy words, but to the struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it \u2018the view from within,\u2019 \u201d she says. \u201cThink of stuttering like an iceberg. Only 10% of an iceberg is visible. The other 90% is under the surface. The only way to know what\u2019s going on with someone who stutters is to ask questions and to listen to them talk about their own speech. If we listen, we\u2019ll realize there\u2019s much more to the stutterer than the stuttering.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Vanryckeghem prepares to retire in the spring, she wants to leave a path for UCF students to carry forward the crucial research she and her late husband, Gene Brutten, began. So, she\u2019s establishing the Martine Vanryckeghem and Gene Brutten Endowed Scholarship, set up to be funded into perpetuity. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a graduate student in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders who demonstrates a passion to contribute to the needs of people who struggle with fluency.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of my background, it would be nice for an international student to be considered for the scholarship,\u201d says Vanryckeghem, referring to the fact she moved to the U.S. from Belgium to pursue her master\u2019s and doctoral degrees. Mostly, however, she came across the ocean to begin a partnership in marriage and in research with Gene.<\/p>\n

When asked what goes through her mind when she hears \u201cthe Martine Vanryckeghem and Gene Brutten Endowed Scholarship\u201d spoken out loud, the expert on fluency is at a loss for words. She\u2019d rather allow their unlikely story to tell us everything we need to know.<\/p>\n

Gene and Martine did not meet as curious colleagues or as mentor and protege. They met as a traveler and a tour guide. Gene, a professor at Southern Illinois University, was already regarded as a leading researcher on stuttering. He\u2019d written a seminal book, The Modification of Stuttering<\/em>, and was coming to Martine\u2019s hometown of Ghent to lead a workshop on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hired to show him around the city,\u201d says Vanryckeghem, who worked fulltime in a clinical practice with children who had developmental delays.<\/p>\n

Privately, she felt intimidated at the prospect of meeting Brutten. But when the author\/professor\/researcher arrived, he introduced himself simply as \u201cGene.\u201d<\/p>\n