Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “STUTTERING”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 397 records · Page 22Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Concurrent task interference in stutterers: dissociating hemispheric specialization and activation.

Using all four combinations of hand and foot, adult stutterers and nonstutterers performed a unimanual sequential finger tapping task together with a stimulus-contingent foot responding task. The two groups were similar in that both demonstrated more dual-task interference when using the ipsilateral than contralateral limb pairs. Contrary to a prediction based on a hypothesis that attributes stuttering to neural interference due to an ungated or unregulated activity flow between the hemispheres, stutterers did not show more interference than nonstutterers when using the contralateral limb pairs. The groups did differ, however, in terms of finger tapping interference associated with right- versus left-foot concurrent task responding. Nonstutterers showed more interference when using the left than right foot. This was interpreted in terms of the attentional demands that the foot responding task placed on a system with an inherent left-hemisphere attentional bias. The lack of a reliable difference in stutterers with respect to interference by the two feet is consistent with indications from other research that stutterers have a relatively labile system of hemispheric attention or activation. The results of the study are placed into the context of a general model of the brain mechanisms associated with stuttering.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

A PET study of the neural systems of stuttering.

The cause of stuttering is unknown. Failure to develop left-hemispheric dominance for speech is a long-standing theory although others implicated the motor system more broadly, often postulating hyperactivity of the right (language nondominant) cerebral hemisphere. As knowledge of motor circuitry has advanced, theories of stuttering have become more anatomically specific, postulating hyperactivity of premotor cortex, either directly or through connectivity with the thalamus and basal ganglia. Alternative theories target the auditory and speech production systems. By contrasting stuttering with fluent speech using positron emission tomography combined with chorus reading to induce fluency, we found support for each of these hypotheses. Stuttering induced widespread overactivations of the motor system in both cerebrum and cerebellum, with right cerebral dominance. Stuttered reading lacked left-lateralized activations of the auditory system, which are thought to support the self-monitoring of speech, and selectively deactivated a frontal-temporal system implicated in speech production. Induced fluency decreased or eliminated the overactivity in most motor areas, and largely reversed the auditory-system underactivations and the deactivation of the speech production system. Thus stuttering is a disorder affecting the multiple neural systems used for speaking.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Progression of language complexity during treatment with the Lidcombe Program for early stuttering intervention.

The Lidcombe Program is an operant treatment for early stuttering. Outcomes indicate that the program is effective; however, the underlying mechanisms leading to a successful reduction of stuttering remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether fluency achieved with the Lidcombe Program was accompanied by concomitant reduction of utterance length and decreases in linguistic complexity. Standardized language tests were administered pretreatment to 4 male preschool children. Spontaneous language samples were taken 2 weeks prior to treatment, at Weeks 1, 4, 8, and 12 during treatment, and 6 months after the onset of treatment. Samples were analyzed for mean length of utterance (MLU), percentage of simple and complex sentences, number of different words (NDW), and percentage of syllables stuttered. Analysis revealed that all participants presented with language skills in the average and above average range. The children achieved an increase in stutter-free speech accompanied by increases in MLU, percentage of complex sentences, and NDW. For these preschool children who stutter, improved stutter-free speech during treatment with the program appeared to be achieved without a decrease in linguistic complexity. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2001

Evaluation of a stuttering treatment based on reduction of short phonation intervals.

This paper reports the results of an efficacy study of a stuttering treatment program known as Modifying Phonation Intervals (MPI), which trains stuttering speakers to reduce the frequency of relatively short phonation intervals (PIs) during connected speech across speaking tasks and situations. Five young adult male stuttering speakers were treated in this computer-based program that systematically trains speakers to reduce selected short PIs found to functionally control stuttering. The treatment process was evaluated using multiple-baseline designs. Treatment was largely self-managed and based on a performance-contingent schedule of within-clinic speaking tasks (Establishment), beyond-clinic speaking tasks (Transfer), and systematic decreases in assessment occasions (Maintenance). Assessments were made at regular intervals before, during, and after treatment. All speakers achieved stutter-free and natural-sounding speech during within- and beyond-clinic speaking tasks at the completion of Maintenance. All were tested 12 months after completion of Maintenance, and all maintained the results. The findings from this study suggest that this procedure may make a significant contribution to stuttering treatment practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Kinematic analyses of speech, orofacial nonspeech, and finger movements in stuttering and nonstuttering adults.

This work investigated the hypothesis that neuromotor differences between individuals who stutter and individuals who do not stutter are not limited to the movements involved in speech production. Kinematic data were obtained from gender- and age-matched stuttering (n = 10) and nonstuttering (n = 10) adults during speech movements, orofacial nonspeech movements, and finger movements. All movements were performed in 4 conditions differing in sequence length and location of the target movement within the sequence. Results revealed statistically significant differences between the stuttering and nonstuttering individuals on several measures of lip and jaw closing (but not opening) movements during perceptually fluent speech. The magnitude of these differences varied across different levels of utterance length (larger differences during shorter utterances) and across different locations of the target movement within an utterance (larger differences close to the beginning). Results further revealed statistically significant differences between the stuttering and nonstuttering groups in finger flexion (but not extension) movement duration and peak velocity latency. Overall, findings suggest that differences between stuttering and nonstuttering individuals are not confined to the sensorimotor processes underlying speech production or even movements of the orofacial system in general. Rather, it appears that the groups show generalized differences in the duration of certain goal-directed movements across unrelated motor systems.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The Lidcombe Behavioral Data Language of stuttering.

The Lidcombe Behavioral Data Language (LBDL; K. Bryant & A. Packman, 1999; A. Packman & M. Onslow, 1998; A. Packman, M. Onslow, & K. Bryant, 2000) is a recently developed taxonomy of stuttering. It fills a void in stuttering research because most current descriptive systems are taxonomies of disfluencies, not stuttering alone, and are not behaviorally based. This study is an investigation of intrajudge and interjudge agreement for the LBDL. Ten experienced speech-language pathologists and 10 undergraduate students received brief instruction in the LBDL and then applied it to 15 intervals of stuttered speech on 2 occasions. The speakers were children and adults. Intrajudge agreement was high for both groups but only experienced judges achieved satisfactory interjudge agreement. Results suggest that some stuttering behaviors may be easier to categorize than others. Possible applications of the LBDL to research and clinical practice in stuttering are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Phonologic processing in adults who stutter: electrophysiological and behavioral evidence.

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), judgment accuracy, and reaction times (RTs) were obtained for 11 adults who stutter and 11 normally fluent speakers as they performed a rhyme judgment task of visually presented word pairs. Half of the word pairs (i.e., prime and target) were phonologically and orthographically congruent across words. That is, the words looked orthographically similar and rhymed (e.g., thrown, own) or did not look similar and did not rhyme (e.g., cake, own). The phonologic and orthographic information across the remaining pairs was incongruent. That is, the words looked similar but did not rhyme (e.g., gown, own) or did not look similar but rhymed (e.g., cone, own). Adults who stutter and those who are normally fluent exhibited similar phonologic processing as indexed by ERPs, response accuracy, and RTs. However, longer RTs for adults who stutter indicated their greater sensitivity to the increased cognitive loads imposed by phonologic/orthographic incongruency. Also, unlike the normally fluent speakers, the adults who stutter exhibited a right hemisphere asymmetry in the rhyme judgment task, as indexed by the peak amplitude of the rhyming effect (difference wave) component. Overall, these findings do not support theories of the etiology of stuttering that posit a core phonologic-processing deficit. Rather we provide evidence that adults who stutter are more vulnerable to increased cognitive loads and display greater right hemisphere involvement in late cognitive processes.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2006

The distribution of phonated intervals in the speech of individuals who stutter.

PURPOSE: Previous research has demonstrated the fluency-improving effect of reducing the occurrence of short-duration, phonated intervals (PIs; approximately 30-150 ms) in individuals who stutter, prompting the hypothesis that PIs in these individuals' speech are not distributed normally, particularly in the short PI ranges. It has also been hypothesized that this nonnormal PI distribution will be present during the stutter-free speech of affected persons. METHOD: A comparison was made between the distributions of PIs during oral reading by adolescent and adult speakers who stuttered (n=13; 11 males) and by age- and gender-matched, normally fluent control participants. RESULTS: The results did not support these hypotheses. The results showed that although there were significantly fewer PIs in the speech of the speakers who stuttered (probably because of their slower speaking rate), there was no significant difference between the PI distributions of both speaker groups. This was also true for comparisons between the stutter-free speech of the affected speakers and matched periods of speech produced by the control participants. The PI distributions from both groups were highly correlated. CONCLUSION: The null hypothesis findings are discussed in relation to speech-motor- and neurologic-systems explanations for the fluency-inducing effects of reducing short PIs in the speech of individuals who stutter.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Using preference-based measures to assess quality of life in stuttering.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether standard pharmaco-economic preference methods can be used to assess perceived quality of life in stuttering. METHOD: Seventy-five nonstuttering adults completed a standardized face-to-face interview that included a rating scale, standard gamble, and time trade-off preference measures for 4 health states (your health and mild, moderate, and severe stuttering) in the context of 2 anchor states (perfect health and death). RESULTS: Results showed mean utility values between .443 for severe stuttering estimated using the rating scale technique and .982 for respondents' own current health estimated using a standard gamble technique. A two-way repeated measures analysis of variance and post hoc tests showed significant effects for method, health state, and the interaction. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm that utility estimates can differentiate between stuttering severity levels and that utility scores for stuttering conform to the known properties of data obtained using these standard measurement techniques. These techniques, therefore, can and should be further investigated as potential contributors to complete measurement protocols for the study and treatment of stuttering.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Response to "Intensive stuttering modification therapy: a multidimensional assessment of treatment outcomes," by Blomgren, Roy, Callister, and Merrill (2005).

PURPOSE: M. Blomgren, N. Roy, T. Callister, and R. Merrill (2005) used a multidimensional approach to evaluate treatment efficacy for the Successful Stuttering Management Program. While the article acknowledged that the treatment program under evaluation does not target a reduction in stuttering frequency, Blomgren and colleagues concluded that the therapy "was ineffective in producing durable reductions of core stuttering behaviors, such as stuttering frequency and severity." In this response, it is suggested that Blomgren et al. used inappropriate treatment efficacy measures relative to the therapy program under evaluation, subsequently making the study's data difficult to interpret. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that stuttering treatment efficacy measures include client-reported treatment satisfaction data, efficacy measures relative to the goals and values of the therapy approach being evaluated, and data relative to the documented values and priorities of those within the stuttering population.

Humans↗
PubMed1979

Comparison of regulated-breathing verses abbreviated desensitization on reported stuttering episodes.

This study was an investigation of the regulated-breathing method for controlling stuttering as compared to a placebo-control method consisting of abbreviated desensitization training. The regulated-breathing procedure, given to 21 stutterers, taught the speaker to breathe smoothly and deeply, to pause at natural juncturing points, to plan ahead for the content of the speech, and to relax chest and neck muscles. Several general behavioral procedures were also used including relaxation training, self-correction for errors, social support, daily home practice, and response awareness, which are components of the general habit reversal procedure for diverse habits. Training was given in one or two sessions plus regular follow-up telephone calls. Daily self-recordings were obtained of the number of stuttering episodes during everyday speech, to determine the generalized effect of the treatment. The regulated-breathing method reduced the reported stuttering episodes by 94% on the first day after training and by 97% during the fourth week and the three-month follow-up. The control procedure reduced reported stuttering only slightly (about 10%). The results indicate substantial effectiveness of the regulated-breathing method for reducing reported stuttering episodes in everyday speech as compared with an alternative treatment of equal duration.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Meta-analysis of the effects of stuttering treatment.

Despite the many reports of stuttering treatment, there is little consensus either on the long term effectiveness of treatment or on which treatments are the most effective. The literature was searched for treatment outcome studies that reported sufficient data to allow a meta-analysis to be conducted. Forty-two studies covering the treatment of a total of 756 stutterers were located. In these studies the typical client was a 25-year-old severe stutterer who received 80 hours of symptom reduction treatment. Most studies used reliable measures of both stuttering and attitude to assess improvement some six months after treatment had ended. Treatment effects were calculated from 116 pre- and posttreatment pairs of measures. Average effect size was 1.3, which indicates that after treatment the groups of stutterers experienced a 1.3 standard deviation improvement in their pretreatment scores. Clearly, stuttering treatments can be beneficial, and the benefits appear comparable to other treatments in the health sciences. Prolonged speech and gentle onset techniques evidenced better gains in the short term and long term than either attitude or airflow techniques. These four seem preferable to any of the other reported treatments and were certainly better than no treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Latency of vocalization onset for stutterers and nonstutterers under conditions of auditory and visual cueing.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether stutters and nonstutterers differed in latency of vocalization onset as a function of auditory and visual stimulus presentations. Twelve adult stutterers and 12 adult nonstutterers were compared for phonation onset latency under conditions of visual, right ear auditory, and left ear auditory cueing. Analysis of the data indicated that (a) overall phonation onset time did not differ significantly between the groups, (b) no significant differences were found for phonation onset time under conditions of combined auditory cueing, (c) stutterers were significantly slower for /pae/when auditory cueing was presented to either the left or right ear, (d) stutters were significantly slower for /pae/ and /bae/ when the values were combined for the left ear, and (e) there were not significant differences between stutterers' and non nonstutterers' phonation onset times under visual cueing. The results are interpreted to implicate a possible role of auditory system functioning in stutterers' motor control for speech tasks such as phonation onset.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1984

Behavioral and nonbehavioral variables in the measurement of stutterers' communication attitudes.

The influence of the behavioral variables, stuttering and speech, and the nonbehavioral variables, feelings or attitudes regarding speech, on stutterers' responses to the modified Erickson Communication Attitude Scale (known as the S24) was investigated in two studies. In the first study, 19 adult stutterers answered an amended version of the S24 Scale; it permitted subjects to nominate the basis of their response to each item on the Scale. The findings indicated that subjects regarded their responses to Scale items as largely influenced by their judgments about their stuttering and speech behavior. The second study involved within-subject experiments with three adult male stutterers. Each subject identified those situations that influenced answers on the S24 Scale. Six weekly recordings of the subjects' speech in these situations showed that stuttering frequency was consistently higher in situations associated with item responses implying negative attitudes than in situations associated with positive attitude responses. The findings challenge the claim that the S24 Scale primarily assesses feelings or attitudes regarding speech or interpersonal communication.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Measurement and modification of speech naturalness during stuttering therapy.

This paper describes two studies that illustrate the utility of listener ratings of speech naturalness for measuring and modifying speech naturalness during a stuttering therapy program. The program involved 5 adolescent stutterers who were receiving an intensive treatment incorporating a prolonged speech procedure. In Study A, a clinician used a 9-point rating scale to score the speech naturalness of 1-min speaking samples each stutterer made at intervals over the course of the program. The results demonstrated predictable trends in speech naturalness during the program, but they also showed that natural sounding speech is not a predictable outcome of a procedure that removes stuttering, controls speaking rate, and exposes clients to transfer procedures. In Study B, 3 of the 5 stutterers participated in single subject experiments partway through their therapy program. These experiments were designed to assess the effect of regular feedback of speech naturalness ratings on the stutterer's spontaneous speech. The results showed that each subject's speech naturalness ratings could be modified toward a target level of speech naturalness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

An investigation into the relationship between anxiety and stuttering.

The relationship between self-reported anxiety and stuttering was explored. Although previous research has mostly shown that persons who stutter are no more anxious than persons who do not stutter, many of these studies had inadequate power to detect significant differences. In this study, a large number of stutters were assessed on state and trait anxiety before, and on trait anxiety after, intensive behavioral treatment. Their levels of anxiety were compared to those of nonstuttering controls matched for gender, age, and occupational status. Results showed that persons who stutter had significantly higher levels of fear (state anxiety) in a demanding speech situation. They were also shown to have higher levels of chronic anxiety (trait anxiety) than matched controls. However, trait anxiety measured after treatment was within normal levels. Although not allowing the conclusion that anxiety causes stuttering, these results do have important implications for the management of the disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Speech-related reaction times of stutterers and nonstutterers: diagnostic implications.

Speech-related reaction time measures (laryngeal premotor and adjustment time for /a/, labial initiation and physiological voice onset time for /pa/) and fluency-related measures (number of stutterings, number of normal disfluencies, and time needed to complete an oral reading) of 24 stutterers and a like number of nonstutterers were assessed to determine their diagnostic discriminative power. Discriminant analysis showed that stutterers were most effectively differentiated from normally fluent speakers by the total number of stutterings and normal disfluencies during oral reading and by the duration of laryngeal adjustments prior to cued phonation. Factor analysis revealed that the fluency failure and reaction time measures clustered independently for both stutterers and nonstutterers. These findings suggest that both fluency failures and the duration of laryngeal adjustment time are useful diagnostic measures for discriminating stutterers from those who are normally fluent.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Pretreatment factors associated with the outcome of stuttering therapy.

Measures of stuttering behavior, personality, and attitudes about speaking were obtained from 20 stutterers at the beginning of treatment. These measures were correlated with three measures of stuttering behavior a year after treatment. Pretreatment attitudes were most highly related to outcome. followed by pretreatment stuttering behavior, and then personality measures. Multiple regression analyses of the pretreatment measures demonstrated that combinations of these variables correlated moderately high (r = 0.79, 0.66, 0.73) with outcome. Prediction equations derived from the multiple regression analyses were used to predict outcomes for an independent group of 18 stutterers. Predicted and actual outcomes were shown to be correlated moderately high (r = 0.75, 0.73, 0.51). Suggestions for clinical use of predictive factors are given. Implications for the design of treatment and understanding the nature of stuttering are discussed.

Adult↗