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Relationship between covert and overt speech measures immediately before and immediately after stuttering treatment.

Overt and covert assessments of monologue and conversational speech were compared in 22 male adult stutterers immediately prior to the commencement of intensive treatment, and in 15 male adult stutterers immediately after completion of intensive treatment. There were no overall differences between covert and overt speech measures taken immediately before treatment. Immediately after intensive treatment, stuttering frequency (%SS) was significantly higher in covert evaluation than in overt evaluation, though the magnitude of the difference was small. There were no consistent covert-overt differences in speech rate (SPM). These results suggest that overt speech samples constitute a valid source of information about stutterers' 'real life' speech immediately before treatment but are less valid immediately after treatment.

Adult↗

The onset of stuttering in two- and three-year-old children: a preliminary report.

Data on the onset of stuttering in 22 children 2 and 3 years of age were obtained through systematic parent interviews using a coded questionnaire. All children were reported to have begun stuttering prior to 36 months of age. The results indicated more similar sex distribution and greater diversity in manner of onset than was reported in past investigations. Most parents perceived early stuttering to be associated with some degree of tensions and force. The length of syllable and word repetition as reported appeared to be above the average for normally disfluent children of similar ages. Directions for future research of early childhood stuttering and clinical implications of the data are discussed.

Age Factors↗

Speech quality measurement and the management of stuttering.

This paper reviews the various approaches that have been made toward the investigation of speech quality in stuttering treatment. The review takes into account the findings of relevant perceptual and acoustic investigations in the area of normal communication skills and voice disorders. Similar consideration is given to investigations on the stutter-free speech of stutterers where the contribution and relevance of this research to the search for a reliable and viable measure of speech quality is discussed. The review concludes with an overview of some promising findings from recent studies on the use of listener ratings of speech naturalness in the measurement and modification of untreated and treated stutterers. Some avenues for research and issues that have emerged from these studies are also discussed.

Adult↗

Some relationships between punishment, stuttering, and galvanic skin responses.

The simultaneous effects of response-contingent punishment on stuttering behaviors and the frequency of galvanic skin response (GSR) deflections for 10 subjects were investigated. GSR's and stuttering responses were recorded during base rate, treatment, and extinction conditions. The subjects demonstrated a 50% or greater decrease in stuttering frequency during the treatment condition. Combined data for all subjects indicated that the mean frequency of GSR deflections remained stable or declined across conditions of the study. Analysis of individual data revealed that GSR deflections during treatment as compared with base rate increased for four subjects, remained essentially the same in two subjects, and decreased for four subjects. These results suggest that experimental procedures which result in functional punishment effects on stuttering frequency may not be associated with any predictable pattern on concomitant autonomic arousal.

Adult↗

The ability of stutterers and nonstutterers to initiate and terminate phonation during production of an isolated vowel.

This study tested the hypothesis that stutterers have difficulty initiating and terminating phonation independent of the acts of running speech and stuttering. Ten young adult stutterers served as the experimental group. They were matched as a group for age and sex with 10 normal speakers. Subjects from both groups were tested individually. The experimental task required that subjects start and stop phonation as quickly as possible upon hearing each member of a seried of 1000-Hz pure tones appear and then disappear. Subjects' vocalizations were permanently recorded on an optical oscillograph. Results showed that both groups improved (shortened) their voice initiation and termination times from the beginning to the end of the experiment. Typically, however, the stutterers were significantly slower than the control subjects on most of the temporal measures.

Adolescent↗

Latency of vocalization onset: stutterers versus nonstutterers.

Eleven stutterers and matched controls were asked to produce as quickly as possible each of 26 different syllables following a visual stimulus. Three trials were given for each syllable. Responses were filtered to remove supraglottally produced sounds, and the time between the visual stimulus and the onset of vocalization was measured by a voice-operated relay and a computer's internal clock. The results suggested that stutterers are slower in initiating vocalization across a wide variety of syllables, and the difference averages about 65 msec. Furthermore, when phonologic conditions delayed voice onset by a comparable amount, the stutterers gained enough time so that no significant differences were observed between the two groups. The results are interpreted as suggesting that auditory dysfunction cannot be a cause for slower vocalization reaction time in stutterers but that either vocal dysfunction or a lack of cerebral dominance may be responsible for these differences.

Adult↗

Stuttering: discoordination of phonation with articulation and respiration.

Complexity of phonatory and respiratory adjustments was systematically simplified in 30 adult stutterers under three speaking conditions: voiced, whispered, and articulated without phonation. Stuttering was reduced considerably when whispering and was practically eliminated when articulating silently. The possibility that stuttering consistently results from complexity of phonatory coordinations with articulation and respiration was strongly supported. Increased speaking rates under conditions that decreased stuttering seemed to be evidence that efficient rhythmical flow of speech is facilitated by simplification of phonatory and respiratory adjustments.

Adolescent↗

Listener judgement of differences in stutterers' nonstuttered speech during chorus- and nonchorus-reading conditions.

The hypothesis that a stutterer's usual manner of speaking changes during chorus reading was tested. Nine stutterers orally read a passage under chorus- and nonchorus-reading conditions. Stutter-free speech samples of similar prose content were obtained from oral readings made between and within both conditions. Observers were asked to identify pairs of samples made under different (chorus/nonchorus) or similar (chorus/chorus or nonchorus/nonchorus) oral reading conditions. The results provided only partial support for the hypothesis. Observers were unable to distinguish confidently the speech sample group that was made under similar conditions from the sample group made under different conditions. However, judges were able to identify correctly samples from four of the nine stutterers that were made under different speaking conditions.

Adolescent↗

Laryngeal muscle activity during stuttering.

Laryngeal muscle activity during fluent and stuttered utterances was investigated via electromyography. Analysis revealed that stuttering was accompanied by high levels of laryngeal muscle activity and disruption of normal reciprocity between abductor and adductor muscle groups. Results are interpreted as demonstrating the existence of a laryngeal component in stuttering and showing a strong correlation between abnormal laryngeal muscle activity and moments of stuttering.

Action Potentials↗

A study of the central auditory processes in stutterers using the Synthetic Sentence Identification (SSI) Test battery.

The performance of a group of stutters (N = 14) and a group of nonstutterers (N = 14) was compared on the Synthetic Sentence Identification Test (Speaks and Jerger, 1965). The test is designed to assess central auditory function. It was hypothesized that because of subtle neurologically based differences in perceptual processing, the performance of the two groups would differ significantly on one or more of the subtests. An analysis of variance revealed that the performance of the stuttering group was significantly poorer (0.01 level of confidence) than that of the nonstutteres on the Ipsilateral Competing Message Subtest. The results of the investigation were compatible with other studies that suggest a neurological dysfunction within the central auditory apparatus as at least one of the underlying causes of disfluency. It was concluded that further investigations of the central auditory processes in stutterers are warranted to make a more definitive statement about the etiology of stuttering.

Adolescent↗

Articulatory dynamics of fluent utterances of stutterers and nonstutterers.

High speed cineradiography is used to describe the kinematics and spatial and temporal organization of perceptually fluent speech gestures for six stutterers and seven normal speakers. Movements of the lower lip and jaw are analyzed in the CVCs/mam/,/pap/, and /bab/. The results indicate that stutterers consistently show longer durations between movement onsets, achievements of peak velocity and voice onsets than normal speakers. Stutterers also show longer steady state positioning for the lip and jaw during vowel production and a greater asynchrony between lip and jaw movement. The results suggest that in perceptually fluent utterances the organization of events necessary for speech production differs between groups of stutterers and normal speakers.

Adult↗

Alpha hemispheric asymmetry and stuttering: some support for a segmentation dysfunction hypothesis.

The alpha hemispheric asymmetries of normal-speaking males, normal-speaking females and male stutterers were examined with electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques during exposure to connected speech and connected nonlinguistic stimuli. The subject selection was controlled for familial right handedness. The stutterers showed significantly less alpha in their right hemispheres for both verbal and nonverbal tasks. The findings are discussed in terms of possible variables affecting hemispheric processing in normal males, females, and stutterers. The hypothesis that stuttering may be a linguistic segmentation dysfunction is presented.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Acoustic properties of masking/delayed feedback in the fluency of stutterers and controls.

This study examined specific acoustic variables such as auditory masking in the effect of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) on stuttered speech. Eleven stutterers and eleven controls read prose aloud under conditions of modified and masked feedback. The readers' speech was compared under conditions of synchronized and 100-msec delayed speech feedback and under four conditions of synchronized or 100-msec delayed feedback of a low frequency masker or a voice-like masker modulated by the amplitude envelope derived from the speech. Two conditions with continuous envelope masker not thus modulated were also employed. Numbers of syllables read and error frequency were scored. Control subjects were disrupted only by delayed speech feedback, but stutterers' speech was partially ameliorated by all the experimental presentations. In this respect, delayed speech feedback was not superior to the various speech-contingent masking conditions. Modulated masking was more effective than continuous masking, irrespective of delay. The ameliorative effects of DAF therefore appear nonspecific, and models for stuttering based on neural delay loops and the concept of perceptual interference are considered premature.

Adolescent↗

The attribution of personality traits: the stutterer and nonstutterer.

Three videotaped recordings were made of an adult male speaking in an interview situation. Tapes differed as a function of the fluency exhibited by the interviewed speaker (i.e., fluent speech, primary stuttering, secondary stuttering). Three audiotapes were recorded from the videotapes yielding six stimulus tapes. Independent groups of college students saw and/or heard one of the stimulus tapes, each described as an interview with a "male who stutters." The fluent audio- and videotapes were replayed to two additional groups but were described only as an interview with a "male." Groups rated the personality of the speaker after tape presentation. Results revealed no difference in personality trait assignment as a function of experimental variables. However, in a second experiment two groups of college students rated a hypothetical normal speaker and hypothetical stutterer as significantly different in personality attributes. Results are discussed with reference to stereotyping behavior.

Humans↗

Temporal characteristics related to the discrimination of stutterers' and nonstutterers' speech samples.

Measurements of the difference in average speaking rate, average number of pauses, average pause duration, and average duration of the vowels that received primary stress were obtained from the speech samples of 35 stutterers and 35 nonstutterers. The samples had been screened to ensure that they contained no instances of overt stuttering, audible respirations, or inappropriate voicing. The measurements were used as the predictors in multiple linear regression analyses. The criterion variable was the average percent-correct discriminations of 40 subjects who listened to the samples in pairs and indicated which member of each pair was the stutterer. The results showed that the difference in speaking rate combined with either pause measure accounted for approximately 70% of the variance in the listeners' responses. The findings indicate that speaking rate and pauses are potential perceptual cues for listeners attempting to discriminate the speech of stutterers from that of nonstutterers.

Humans↗

The Indians have many terms for it: stuttering among the Bannock-Shoshoni.

This report follows by 23 years correspondence between Wendell Johnson and Sven Liljeblad in which Liljeblad pointed out that among North American "nonstuttering" Indians there were Indians who stuttered. He also reported several terms that referred to stuttering. An unpublished study reported by Frank confirmed Liljeblad's claims. Since we must rely on published reports, it is important to get these findings into print for future scholars. Though these findings in no way refute the claimed importance of linguistics and cultural variables as contributing to the development of stuttering, they do call to question evidence supporting the view that stuttering is a diagnosogenic disorder. Historical and sociological issues related to these contradictory findings are similar to those discussed by Freeman.

Culture↗

Relation between finger reaction time and voice reaction time in stuttering and nonstuttering children and adults.

Nine stutterers and nine nonstutterers at each of three age levels (5 years, 9 years, and 18 years and above) responded to the onset of 21 1-kHz tones by depressing the index finger of their preferred hand on a response key. Finger reaction times (FRTs) were measured to the nearest millisecond and compared to the voice reaction times (VRTs) obtained from the same subjects. Increased speed and stability of the finger reaction times were observed as an inverse function of age for both groups. The stutterers, as a group, exhibited mean FRTs which were significantly longer and more variable than those of the nonstutterers at each of the three age levels. High correlations also were found between the finger and voice reaction scores for both the stutterers and the nonstutterers. Results support the inference that some stutterers may exhibit difficulty in the consistent execution of motor control strategies common to both speech and nonspeech movements.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Prephonatory chest wall posturing in stutterers.

The possibility that prephonatory chest wall posturing is abnormal in stutterers was explored by observing rib cage and abdominal hemicircumference changes during the interval between the presentation of a stimulus and the production of/alpha/by a group of stutterers (N = 5). It was found that the patterns of chest wall adjustment for phonation were qualitatively identical in the stutterers and in a comparable group of normal men studied previously. There was, however, a significant difference in the way in which lung volume changed during the execution of the chest wall adjustment. This was considered to be indicative of delayed glottal closure among the stutterers rather than representative of a primary ventilatory disturbance.

Abdominal Muscles↗