KENTUCKY — On this week’s “In Focus Kentucky” program, we’re focusing on a new state law that expands insurance coverage for people seeking treatment for stuttering, which is a condition that disrupts the normal flow of speech.

During the 2024 legislative session in Frankfort, Senate Bill 111 passed out of both chambers of the General Assembly and eventually was signed into law. The legislation removes any caps on visits to a speech-language pathologist and eliminates or reduces barriers for families in need of treatment.

In this segment, Meg Shake, who is a speech-language pathologist with UK Healthcare in Lexington, shares more detail about the specialized type of evaluation and treatment services she provides for patients of all ages.

“Stuttering is a neuro physiological difference that affects the way people communicate. It causes interruptions and speech in the forward flow of speech. And stuttering is really a different entity depending on age, personality and experience. It’s really unique to each person who stutters. And so it’s really hard to come up with a one size fits all definition. I think that’s one thing that I find fascinating about it is that it’s a different journey every time and no two people really stutter alike. So it’s unique to each individual,” explains Shake.

Shake also adds that while there is no cure for stuttering, you can recover from it. “We typically see that with very young children who may stutter for a period of time and then not stutter anymore. There are a number of factors that can play into this, some of which we understand and some of which we’re still investigating. And, you know, you never know. Sometimes people stutter for much longer, and then something happens or they have experiences or they explore their stuttering and they seem to not stutter as much anymore, but we do not consider stuttering curable, meaning that once a person has stuttered for a certain amount of time or had a certain number of experiences with stuttering, it’s highly likely that it is going to be a part of their speech pattern. Ongoing, you know, possibly for life,” adds Shake.

Also during this segment, Shakes explains how stuttering is diagnosed and comments on her relationship with former University of Kentucky student-athlete Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who suffered from a speech disorder during his time in Lexington as men’s basketball player and has since worked on helping others just like him.

“I really wish that I had a great word for it. It was a great privilege to work with him in 2011-2012, when he was a student athlete at UK. It was a huge challenge for me at that point in my career, but also such a special opportunity. And I just don’t think I ever could have known that he would go on to do this kind of work in such an such a passionate way in such an effective way. I did have the opportunity to work with Sen. Westerfield and Michael on the bill in the past year, and it was such a great and enlightening experience. And I don’t know as far as Michael, I’m just really grateful to have him in my life. I’m happy that he’s still my friend,” said Shake.

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.