Ronald
L. Webster
Director
Hollins
Communications Research Institute
7851 Enon Drive
Roanoke, VA 24019
Professor of
Psychology (Emeritus)
Hollins University
Roanoke, VA
Ronald Webster, founder and Director of the Hollins Communications Research Institute (HCRI), and Professor of Psychology (Emeritus), Hollins University, leads a major research program on stuttering that has produced a number of significant advancements in the treatment of this difficult and much misunderstood problem. At the present time, Dr. Webster and his colleagues are conducting research on the relationships between sensory newly discovered feedback anomalies and the disturbed speech motor activities in stuttering. Additional research is in process that examines new methods by which direct speech motor evaluations and speech motor training can be accomplished over the internet.
His extensive work on stuttering is based on the theory that difficulties in the stutterer's reception of his own speech sounds is the primary cause of stuttering. His research on stuttering therapy has brought fluent speech to the majority of the 4,700 stutterers who have undergone speech retraining at HCRI.
The Precision Fluency Shaping Program, and more recently, the Hollins Fluency System(TM), are stuttering therapies developed by Dr. Webster at HCRI. The therapy programs have been the subject of articles appearing in the New York Times, Newsweek, People, Parade, Sports Illustrated, and numerous other publications. Dr. Webster's work has also been featured several times on NBC's "Today" show, the "CBS Morning News," ABC's "Good Morning America," ABC's "20/20" program, and most recently, ABC's "Nightline" program.. Among the clients who have participated in his therapy are Annie Glenn, wife of Ohio Senator John Glenn; John Stossel of ABC's "20/20" program; and Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot.
In addition to authoring the Precision Fluency Shaping Program, and The Hollins Fluency System, Webster has written over three dozen articles and book chapters dealing with stuttering that have appeared in various publications, including the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, the Journal of Fluency Disorders, and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Webster also serves as a consultant on the application of learning principles to training, as well as a reviewer, guest lecturer and researcher. He holds U.S. patents on the Voice Monitor, a special instrument for measuring voice onset abruptness, and the Fluency Master, a tiny instrument similar to a hearing aid that generates fluency in the stutterer by modifying how the voice is heard.
Webster has trained clinicians from Israel, Holland, Canada, England, and the People's Republic of China in the conduct of stuttering therapy. He has also been a consultant in the Middle East and Holland, and has lectured in England, China, Belgium, and Canada. In 1983, he was a member of a psychology exchange delegation to the People's Republic of China and was invited back to China in 1989 by Beijing Medical University to present his findings on the Fluency Master device. He is also a member of the board of the International Institute of Continuing Medical Education, a group that fosters the international exchange of clinical information, and has traveled to Asia several times in recent years as a consultant on these programs.
Webster's research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Education, the J .M. Milbank Foundation, Phillip Morris International, and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
Webster received a B.A. from the University of Maine and the M.A. and Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. He joined the Hollins faculty in 1964 and retired from Hollins University in 2000. He is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Webster is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Southeastern Psychological Association, the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and Sigma Xi, the honorary scientific research society. He is also listed in Who's Who in America. In 1995, Dr. Webster received an award from the Virginia Psychological Association for "Outstanding Contributions in the Application of Psychology."