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PubMedDate not supplied

Stuttering frequency on meaningful and nonmeaningful words in adults who stutter.

Previous research has suggested that word meaning can influence the loci and frequency of stuttering moments. Based on this proposition, it was hypothesized that people who stutter will exhibit a larger proportion of stuttering moments on meaningful words when compared to nonmeaningful or nonsense words. In order to test this hypothesis, stuttering frequency was examined among 9 English-speaking adults who stutter as they read a total of 126 words that were either meaningful or nonmeaningful in nature. The results indicated that approximately 117% more stuttering moments were recorded on nonmeaningful words when compared to meaningful words and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.01). These findings challenge the notion that word meaning can be considered as a reliable predictor of stuttering frequency.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Morphological brain differences between adult stutterers and non-stutterers.

BACKGROUND: The neurophysiological and neuroanatomical foundations of persistent developmental stuttering (PDS) are still a matter of dispute. A main argument is that stutterers show atypical anatomical asymmetries of speech-relevant brain areas, which possibly affect speech fluency. The major aim of this study was to determine whether adults with PDS have anomalous anatomy in cortical speech-language areas. METHODS: Adults with PDS (n = 10) and controls (n = 10) matched for age, sex, hand preference, and education were studied using high-resolution MRI scans. Using a new variant of the voxel-based morphometry technique (augmented VBM) the brains of stutterers and non-stutterers were compared with respect to white matter (WM) and grey matter (GM) differences. RESULTS: We found increased WM volumes in a right-hemispheric network comprising the superior temporal gyrus (including the planum temporale), the inferior frontal gyrus (including the pars triangularis), the precentral gyrus in the vicinity of the face and mouth representation, and the anterior middle frontal gyrus. In addition, we detected a leftward WM asymmetry in the auditory cortex in non-stutterers, while stutterers showed symmetric WM volumes. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide strong evidence that adults with PDS have anomalous anatomy not only in perisylvian speech and language areas but also in prefrontal and sensorimotor areas. Whether this atypical asymmetry of WM is the cause or the consequence of stuttering is still an unanswered question.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Gestural overlap in consonant clusters: effects on the fluent speech of stuttering and non-stuttering subjects.

UNLABELLED: This study was designed to investigate if persons who stutter differ from persons who do not stutter in the coproduction of different types of consonant clusters, as measured in the number of dysfluencies and incorrect speech productions, in speech reaction times and in word durations. Based on the Gestural Phonology Model of Browman and Goldstein, two types of consonant clusters were formed: homorganic and heterorganic clusters, both intra-syllabic (CVCC) and inter-syllabic (CVC#CVC). Overall, the results indicated that homorganic clusters elicited more incorrect speech productions and longer reaction times than the heterorganic clusters, but there was no difference between the homorganic and the heterorganic clusters in the word duration data. Persons who stutter showed a higher percentage dysfluencies and a higher percentage incorrect speech productions than PWNS but there were no main group effects in reaction times and word durations. However, there was a significant three-way interaction effect between group, cluster type and cluster place: homorganic clusters elicited longer reaction times than heterorganic clusters, but only in the inter-syllabic condition and only for persons who stutter. These results suggest that the production of two consonants with the same place of articulation across a syllable boundary puts higher demands on motor planning and/or initiation than producing the same cluster at the end of a syllable, in particular for PWS. The findings are discussed in light of current theories on speech motor control in stuttering. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to describe: (1) the effect of gestural overlap between consonant clusters on speech reaction time and word duration of people who do and do not stutter and be able to (2) identify the literature in the field of gestural overlap between consonant clusters.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Cultural influences in the development and treatment of stuttering: a preliminary report on the black stutterer.

A behavioral analysis of a group of stutterers revealed speech behavioral differences that appeared to be culturally determined. Two general types of stuttering behavioral patterns were differentiated. The stuttering behaviors characteristic of the first pattern were overt repetitions and prolongations with a moderate number of secondary characteristics that were also overt and of the same relative degree of severity as the prolongations and repetitions. The second pattern was characterized by prolongations and repetitions that were more covert and by a larger number of secondary characteristics that were considerably more severe than the repetitions and prolongations. While 85% of the first pattern, Group I, were white stutterers, 79% of the second pattern, Group II, were black stutterers. These results are explained by important black cultural elements such as (1) the importance of oral skills, (2) the importance of manifesting emotional "coolness," and (3) the cultural rejection of disfluent speech patterns. The authors believe that, generally, the forces within the black culture tend to be in opposition to currently practiced stuttering treatment procedures.

Black People↗
PubMed1987

Physiological bases of acoustic LRT in nonstutterers, mild stutterers, and severe stutterers.

The simple reaction time paradigm, incorporating a variable foreperiod, was used to investigate relative contributions of the respiratory and laryngeal systems to mild and severe stutterers' prolonged acoustic laryngeal reaction time (LRT) values. Prephonatory kinematic data were analyzed in terms of frequency of initiation, timing, and organization of events executed to attain the functional physiological targets of respiratory inflation during foreperiods and phonation onset after foreperiods. Acoustic data replicated a previously observed composite stuttering severity and foreperiod effect on stutterers' acoustic LRT values. Kinematic data revealed that, in general, the mild stutterers demonstrated delayed initiation of respiratory events and appropriate organization of respiratory and laryngeal events while the severe stutterers demonstrated delayed initiation of laryngeal events and inappropriate organization of respiratory and laryngeal events. That is, kinematic data both account for group differences in acoustic LRT values as a function of foreperiod and support the notion that differential respiratory and laryngeal deficits underly mild and severe stutterers' prolonged acoustic LRT values.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Judgments of stuttered and nonstuttered intervals by recognized authorities in stuttering research.

The study reported in this paper gathered judgments of stuttering on brief (5.0-sec) audiovisual speech samples taken from six adults who stuttered. Judgments were made by 10 highly experienced authorities on stuttering treatment and research, located in seven different universities or clinical research centers. Results showed considerable agreement between pairs of judges working in the same center, but large and potentially fundamental differences were identified in the amount of stuttering recorded in different centers. Approximately 40% of the 5.0-sec speech intervals used in this study were assigned the same judgment, either Stuttered or Nonstuttered, by all judges on two judgment occasions. The possibility that these intervals may serve as a core for establishing an across-center standard for behavioral judgments of stuttering is discussed.

Female↗
PubMed1996

Online sentence processing in adults who stutter and adults who do not stutter.

This study had two specific aims. The first aim was to investigate whether, during a silent reading task, persons who stutter encode phonological and semantic information move slowly then persons who do not stutter. The second aim was to investigate how the syntactic context of stimulus sentences influences the speed of coding. Fourteen adult persons who stutter and 14 adult persons who do not stutter participated in a self-paced word-by-word reading experiment. While reading a prose text silently, participants monitored target words that were specified before the presentation of the text. The target words to be monitored for were phonologically similar, categorically related, or identical to a cue word. The influence of syntactic information on the word-monitoring reaction time was studied by presenting the text either as normal prose, in a syntactically correct but semantically anomalous version, or in random word order. The results suggest that the two groups are not different with respect to the speed of word identification but that persons who stutter retrieve semantic information more slowly than persons who do not stutter.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Asymmetries in mouth opening during word generation in male stuttering and non-stuttering participants.

We examined lateral asymmetries in mouth opening in right-handed male stuttering (N = 11) and non-stuttering (N = 14) participants. Lateral asymmetries in mouth opening were video-recorded and analysed in participants while they generated words beginning with the bilabial phones /b, p, m/. Non-stuttering participants showed an expected preference for right mouth opening during the task, whereas a group of stuttering participants who were matched for sex and age produced a left or bilateral pattern of mouth opening. Analysis of variance revealed the difference between the groups to be significant (p < .001). However, there was more variability in the lateral mouth asymmetries in the stuttering participants. We interpret this finding as adding some support for the hypothesis that aberrant hemispheric control for speech is involved in stuttering. Asymmetric mouth openings appear to have no direct linguistic function, and we discuss the possible implications of the phenomenon for models of speech planning and programming.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Dismantling the Lidcombe Program of early stuttering intervention: verbal contingencies for stuttering and clinical measurement.

BACKGROUND: Data have accumulated to show that the Lidcombe Program of early stuttering intervention is a safe treatment with positive outcomes for preschoolers who stutter, and a randomized controlled trial is under way at the time of writing. Program components have not been investigated experimentally so the functionality of each component is unknown. AIMS: The aim of this preliminary study was to establish the viability of a programme of research that would assess the clinical value of two program components. These components were parental verbal contingencies for stuttering and severity ratings. METHODS & PROCEDURES: In the present preliminary experiment, 38 preschool children were randomized to an experiment involving a 4-week 'dose' of treatment followed by 4 weeks without treatment. The dependent variable was the percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) obtained from the mean %SS score from recordings on three recording occasions. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Some preliminary indications were found that parental verbal contingencies for stuttering contributed to treatment outcomes. No preliminary evidence was found for the contribution of parent severity ratings to treatment outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that a robust, statistical demonstration of these result would be desirable, but effect size estimates from the present data show that access to more than 650 families of stuttering preschool children would be required for such a study. Such a project would be beyond the resources of any one research group to complete in a timely manner, and a method to address this problem is proposed.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Connecting stuttering management and measurement: IV. Predictors of outcome for a behavioural treatment for stuttering.

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials have shown that behavioural treatments based on variants of prolonged-speech (PS) are best practice for reducing the stuttering rate in adults. However, while stuttering is significantly reduced or eliminated for most adults in the short-term with such treatment, relapse in the longer-term is common. Consequently, there has been interest in attempting to establish variables that predict responsiveness to PS-based treatments. Identifying such variables would enable risk prediction and also contribute to the tailoring of treatments to suit individuals who are less likely to benefit in the long-term from the conventional PS-based treatments. Variables that have been investigated to date are the stuttering severity, the attitude to communication and the locus of control. AIMS: The present study revisited this issue with methodological improvements. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Prospective, continuous measures of outcome several years after treatment, and well-powered, least-squares multivariate regression, with backwards elimination, were used to determine the best model to predict short- and long-term outcomes of a PS-based treatment. Other predictor variables were also included. The stuttering rates of 78 participants were measured immediately after the intensive stage of treatment, and during a surprise telephone call 3.5-5 years after treatment. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Attitude to communication and locus of control were separate constructs to stuttering rate. While the stuttering rate predicted outcome, neither of the two non-behavioural variables predicted outcome in either the short- or the long-term. CONCLUSIONS: The most significant finding is that the non-behavioural variables of attitude to communication and locus of control did not predict treatment outcomes. This is contrary to the findings of most previous studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Judgment of disfluency in people who stutter and people who do not stutter: results from magnitude estimation.

Two experiments used a magnitude estimation paradigm to test whether perception of disfluency is a function of whether the speaker and the listener stutter or do not stutter. Utterances produced by people who stutter were judged as "less fluent," and, critically, this held for apparently fluent utterances as well as for utterances identified as containing disfluency. Additionally, people who stutter tended to perceive utterances as less fluent, independent of who produced these utterances. We argue that these findings are consistent with a view that articulatory differences between the speech of people who stutter and people who do not stutter lead to perceptually relevant vocal differences. We suggest that these differences are detected by the speech self-monitoring system (which uses speech perception) resulting in covert repairs. Our account therefore shares characteristics with the Covert Repair (Postma & Kolk, 1993) and Vicious Circle (Vasić & Wijnen, 2005) hypotheses. It differs from the Covert Repair hypothesis in that it no longer assumes an additional deficit at the phonological planning level. It differs from the Vicious Circle hypothesis in that it no longer attributes hypervigilant monitoring to unknown, external factors. Rather, the self-monitor becomes hypervigilant because the speaker is aware that his/her speech is habitually deviant, even when it is not, strictly speaking, disfluent.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Delayed auditory feedback and the speech of stuttering and non-stuttering children.

25 male stutterers and 25 male non-stutterers matched by age and speaking task, read or recited under normal and 113-, 226-, 306-, 413-, 520-msec. delayed auditory feedback conditions. Changes in speaking rate and disfluency count from normal to each delayed auditory feedback condition were calculated as indicators of reaction to delayed auditory feedback. Using an analysis of variance of difference scores for speaking rate, no significant differences were found between stutterers and non-stutterers or among the delays. An analysis of variance of disfluency difference scores showed no differences between stutterers and non-stutterers. Significant differences in disfluency reaction among delay times were found.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Attitudes of a group of South African speech-language pathologists towards stutterers and stuttering therapy.

The present study aimed to examine the attitudes of a group of South African speech-language pathologists towards stuttering and stuttering therapy. Further aims were to investigate whether a stereotype of stutterers was found among these speech-language pathologists, and to determine whether there was any relationship between the attitudes held about stutterers, and the therapists' training and experience. A random probability sample of respondents was selected from the population of speech therapists registered with the Interim Medical and Dental Council of South Africa (I.M.D.C.S.A.). A self-administered mailed questionnaire was employed to realise the aims of the study. The main result of this investigation indicated that almost 50% of the sample of qualified clinicians surveyed, viewed stutterers as a group characterised by specific personality traits and psychological problems. This belief held true irrespective of the number of years of experience working in the field, the time of graduation, the frequency of treating stutterers, or the training emphasis. Implications of these results are considered with respect to student training, continuing education of qualified practitioners and future research.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Measurement of stuttering in adults: comparison of stuttering-rate and severity-scaling methods.

This study investigated the comparative reliability of 2 stuttering measurement tools when used by experienced judges: percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) and a 9-point severity scale (SEV). The study also investigated the degree to which scores on 1 tool predict scores on the other and the distributions of stuttering when measured by these tools. Twelve experienced judges watched 3-min videotapes of 90 stuttering and 10 nonstuttering participants. Half the judges rated %SS, and half made severity ratings. Results showed very high intrajudge and interjudge agreement for both measures. There was a strong linear correlation between %SS scores and SEV scores. Based on this finding, it seems that the 2 measures can be regarded as largely interchangeable. The exception to this, however, was in cases where there was either a small number of significant fixed postures (blocks and prolongations) or a large number of innocuous repeated movements (repetitions) in the speech sample. In such cases, it appears that %SS and SEV scores combined would be needed to provide a valid measure of stuttering. SEV scores were more normally distributed than %SS scores, which were clearly skewed. The advantages and limitations of the SEV scale are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

A comparison of young stutterers' fluent versus stuttered utterances on measures of length and complexity.

This investigation attempted to clarify the relationship between stuttering in young children and the language factors of length and grammatical complexity. Sentences containing stutterings within the first few words, as produced by 12 stutterers (4-6 years old) in spontaneous conversational dyads, were analyzed for length and grammatical complexity. Results indicated that sentences in which an episode of stuttering occurred within the first three words were significantly longer and more complex than sentences that were free of perceptible stuttering and all other forms of fluency failure. Implications of these findings for the clinician are presented and discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Effect of utterance length and meaningfulness on the speech initiation times of children who stutter and children who do not stutter.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of utterance length and meaningfulness on the speech initiation times of children who stutter and children who do not stutter. Subjects were 36 elementary school students (half of whom stutter, matched by age, grade, and gender). Each child repeated short meaningful, long meaningful, and long nonce utterances in response to a visual cue. Nonstuttering, stuttering-only, and stuttering-plus (children with concomitant speech and/or language problems) children responded differently to utterance length and meaningfulness. This suggests that the three groups may process speech motor events for verbal responses differently.

Child↗
PubMed1995

The perceptions of stutterers by people who stutter.

Twenty-five persons who stutter completed a questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers: a female child, male child, female adult and male adult stutterer. The majority of reported adjectives concerned negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating descriptions of stutterers by a group of persons who stutter that were similar to descriptions given by fluent subject groups. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

EEG alpha asymmetries in stutterers and non-stutterers: effects of linguistic variables on hemispheric processing and fluency.

The EEG hemispheric alpha asymmetry technique was used to gather data from anterior and posterior language areas during a resting condition and in a sentence repetition task. Subjects were nine adult stuttering males and nine adult fluent male controls. Sentences were controlled for imagery, syntactic complexity, and rate. Significant within- and between-groups differences were found for both resting and testing conditions. Posteriorly, stutterers showed no differences between resting and testing conditions, while controls showed increased left hemisphere activation. Of the linguistic variables investigated, only imagery was involved in a significant interaction. Fluent males showed greater posterior left hemispheric activation for high and low visual imagery sentences, compared to greater posterior right hemispheric activation in stuttering males. Significantly greater alpha power was found for low vs high imagery sentences in the anterior and posterior left hemisphere sites for both subject groups, and in the right hemisphere sites for the stuttering group only. Fluency data is presented. Differences between groups in alpha power changes from resting to testing conditions are discussed.

Adolescent↗