Patty Walton Featured on FOX News

It’s a speech disorder in which a person appears to struggle to speak. Just one percent of the U.S. population stutters.

But last week the speech impediment stole the spotlight on American Idol. 21-year-old Lazaro Arbos wowed the judges when he sang beautifully after stuttering through his audition interview.

And he’s proving to be an inspiration to others struggling with the same disorder. There is no way to prevent or cure this stammering speech.

But you can improve it through therapy.

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Raising Awareness of Stuttering

Patty Walton observes a graduate student during a speech therapy session with a patient at UNC’s Speech and Audiology clinic. Inset: Walton poses for a portrait in front of a poster of the King’s Speech in her office.

The acclaimed film The King’s Speech, and most recently, TV appearances by an American Idol contestant have brought welcome public attention to stuttering, says UNC faculty expert Patty Walton about the speech disorder that “affects a person’s entire life” in the one out of every 100 people who experiences it.

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