Grace Thomas, an undergraduate research assistant, dons the virtual reality headset during a demonstration of the lab's research methods in the Communication Arts and Sciences building on Michigan State University's campus, Aug. 9, 2024. The lab uses virtual reality and other integrated technologies to research communication disabilities in children, like stuttering.
Approximately five to ten percent of children will stutter for some period of time in their life, with 75% eventually recovering and the other 25% persisting, leading to a potentially lifelong communicative disorder, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders.
Michigan State University’s Developmental Speech Lab is using virtual reality to understand why.
In 2020, the lab was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to research stuttering in children ages three to six. Due to a disruption by the COVID-19 Pandemic, research with children could only begin until 2022, Bridget Walsh, the director of the lab and associate professor of Communicative Sciences and Disorders said.
“One of the hallmark features of stuttering is that it can be so variable,” Walsh said. “People who stutter might be more comfortable in one situation than another. Sometimes we hear kids come in and they're not stuttering at all, and we ask the parent, ‘is this typical in what you're hearing at home?’ and they say no. We really want to get a handle on this variability.”
Walsh said that when in different speaking situations, a person’s sympathetic nervous system activity may be raised, which can be measured through skin conductance, heart rate and where their eyes may be looking. Virtual reality helps to immerse in these situations, she said.
The lab uses two distinct scenarios for research developed in collaboration with Gareth Walkon, founder of withVR. Walkon uses virtual reality in stuttering therapy and in clinical settings for adults. Walsh said that unlike withVR, their lab does not use VR for therapy and solely as a research tool.
One scenario, considered low stakes, involves a kitten.
The subject interacts with a kitten, only hearing a voice speaking and asking questions in the background. The child would then answer questions directly to the kitten, rather than the voice.
“The reason we chose a kitten is that many people who stutter report when they speak to infants or animals, their stuttering naturally decreases,” Walsh said.
The second, a high-stakes scenario, involves sitting in a circle with students on either side and the subject directly facing the teacher. The child then answers questions from both the teacher and students.
The age range of three to six in children is also pivotal to research.
“Most kids start to stutter right around their third birthday,” Walsh said. “If stuttering is going to resolve, it does so within a year to 18 months after onset, so as they move outside of that three to six year window we see they're at more risk for persisting.”
Walsh said they are trying to catch children who are close enough to onset and can still perform the tasks required for research.
Additionally, she said the study benefits from returning children as they age. The lab takes steps to ensure that the children and parents are comfortable during the research.
“It is so important to garner trust and to make the experience fun for these kids,” she said.
Katelyn Gerwin, a research associate in the lab, handles most of the research over the summer.
She said the lab was decorated with an inviting space theme to make children feel comfortable and enjoy their time there. It is important for children to not only attend all three sessions in the short term, but also come back on a yearly basis, Gerwin said.
“We want them to say ‘yes, I want to go back there next week’ and we also want them to say ‘yes, I want to come back there next year’,” Gerwin said.
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Communication with the families is also important to the process.
“We make a lot of personal connections with families, we really want to get to know them,” she said.
Gerwin said this lab has shown that kids from the three to six age range can engage with these virtual reality environments.
“That was something we didn't know going in, and they are truly buying into those scenarios,” she said. “So someday it could be a stuttering therapy tool, even for young kids.”
Undergraduate research assistants like Grace Thomas also assist in the day-to-day operations of the lab. Thomas is one of two undergraduates working in the lab over the summer and focuses on communication with parents, recruitment and working with kids to ensure they are having fun while interacting with the experiments, she said.
She began working in the lab in the fall of 2023 and plans to work until she graduates.
Work in the lab has also influenced her career choices post-graduation.
“I came into undergrad not knowing what I wanted to do,” Thomas said. “I think being in the lab has made me more interested in research than I thought I was.”
Thomas plans on pursuing a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology once she graduates.
“It’s really rewarding to see all of the participants come in,” she said. “My plan right now is to work with kids in the future.”
Looking towards the future of the lab, Walsh said she has submitted a grant which will be reviewed in October that continues research and focuses on the adverse impacts of stuttering in children.
“We're really just laying groundwork, but nobody is really looking at this,” Walsh said. “Nobody's using VR in this way, and certainly with young children. We're paving the way for other research to use it, but really important, clinically.”
