The publication begins with a long interview with a PWS, which is a unique way of introducing the systems approach to the psychosomatics of stuttering. Various aspects of the approach are presented in four chapters, each ending with a bibliography. Chapter One, which is entitled Stuttering from the Psychosomatic Perspective discusses the new approach to this speech disorder and its consequences for the diagnostic and therapeutic process. Stuttering is regarded as more than just a speech fluency disorder, but is also regarded as a psychosomatic disorder, and treating its chronic form as a disease can be justified. Chapter Two, called Inspirations explores the relationships between communicative stress, increased muscle tension and changeability of stuttering. This is a fundamental issue that most theories fail to explain. Furthermore, the chapter contrasts early childhood stuttering with selective mutism in order to present similarities and differences between the two disorders. The author attempts to explain why stuttering is more common among boys and selective mutism among girls. Chapter Three The Authors Own Research offers results of many years of research on stuttering in preschool, school and adult age, along with an in-depth discussion of these. The results have been summarised in the form of a model of stuttering from the systems perspective. Chapter Four, called Systems Therapy of Stuttering refers to the previous chapters and presents the authors therapeutic approach to early childhood stuttering, school age stuttering and chronic stuttering, which are different from one another. The chapter also discusses currently used methods of therapy.
Professor Zbigniew Tarkowski has been researching psychogenic speech disorders (stuttering, mutism), institutional communication (in hospitals and nursing homes) as well as logopaedic diagnostics. He has authored a number of standardised and normalised tools, including the Screening Logopedics Test, the Child's Vocabulary Test and the Language Skills Test. He has been conducting systemic therapy of patients with different disorders for years now, and has authored several monographs, mostly on the topic of stuttering. Recently he has published a book entitled Children With Behaviour, Emotion and Speech Disorders, and reviewed a textbook entitled Speech Pathology for print. His scientific research is inspired by his therapeutic experience. Professor Tarkowski supports the systemic approach to disorders as such as well as interdisciplinary studies, including their international aspects. His hobbies include travelling and agritourism, and he loves St Bernard dogs and common cats.
