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PubMed1984

Disfluencies at the onset of stuttering.

This study describes disfluencies in rare speech samples obtained from young children in temporal proximity to their stuttering onsets. Ten 2 and 3 year olds diagnosed by parents to have begun stuttering for periods of 2 months or less and 10 matched normally speaking children served as subjects. Analyses of spontaneous speech indicated that stutterers were three times more disfluent than nonstutterers. Part-word repetitions and sound prolongations were found to distinguish the two groups significantly. Stutterers were also found to have significantly more repetition units per instance of disfluency than control subjects. Theoretical and practical conclusions are discussed.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1984

Stereotype formation by inference: a possible explanation for the "stutterer" stereotype.

The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesis concerning the origin of the stereotype of the stuttering personality. According to this hypothesis the stereotype is formed by inference from beliefs about the internal variables that accompany disfluencies resembling stuttering on occasions when they occur in normally fluent speakers. This hypothesis leads to the prediction that ratings of the personality of the typical adult male stutterer will be similar to ratings of the internal state of a normally fluent speaker during a transitory spell of disfluent speech. This prediction was tested by obtaining ratings of each of these targets, using the 25 bipolar rating scales employed in previous research on this topic, from two groups each of 40 students. As predicted, the mean ratings of each target were highly correlated across the scales. These results imply that the stereotype of the stuttering personality, although mainly negative, may be derived not from motivational factors, but from judgments made under uncertainty.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Changes in aerodynamic characteristics of stutterers' fluent speech associated with therapy.

Stuttering frequency and four aerodynamic measures of articulatory events within perceptually fluent voiced and voiceless intervocalic intervals were obtained from 15 stutterers prior to and at the termination of a concentrated program of stuttering therapy. Three of the four aerodynamic variables showed group changes over the course of therapy concomitant with improvements in fluency. Additional correlational analyses suggested that one of the aerodynamic variables was specifically related to stuttering frequency. It is argued that both fluency enhancing and ancillary components of therapy operate to influence the intervocalic interval.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Reaction times of moderate and severe stutterers to monaural verbal stimuli: some implications for neurolinguistic organization.

Fourteen right-handed stutterers and 14 normal speakers (7 men & 7 women) responded to monaurally presented stimuli with their right and left hands. Results of an ANOVA with repeated measures showed that a significant ear-hand interaction existed in the normal subjects' data, with the right-ear, right-hand configuration producing the fastest responses. These findings were in concert with an efficiency model of neurolinguistic organization that suggests that the left hemisphere is dominant for language processing with the right hemisphere being capable of performing less efficient auditory-verbal analysis. Results of a similar ANOVA procedure showed that all main effects and interactions were nonsignificant for the stutterers. From these data a bilateral model of neurolinguistic organization was derived for the stutterers where both hemispheres must participate simultaneously in the decoding process. This held true regardless of sex or severity of stuttering.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Stuttering, delayed auditory feedback, and linguistic rhythm.

The models of stuttering and delayed auditory feedback (DAF) discussed in this paper are derived from a model of the fluent production of speech in which a rhythmic structure prespecifies the intervals between vowels of stressed syllables. The same rhythmic structure enables a prediction to be made concerning when vowels of stressed syllables will be auditorily perceived. In both stuttering and speech produced under DAF conditions, it is suggested that an incorrect prediction is made concerning when the vowel will be perceived relative to its production. The proposed model of stuttering can account for a variety of other phenomena. Finally, a preliminary model of the onset of stuttering in children is proposed.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1988

Coordination of aerodynamic and phonatory processes in fluent speech utterances of stutterers.

It has often been suggested that there is a close relation between problems in the coordination of respiratory, phonatory, and articulatory processes and dysfluencies in speech production. However, empirical support for this hypothesis is scarce, because most studies of speech behavior have been restricted to a single motor process. The present investigation examines the interactions of respiration (specifically the build up of subglottal pressure), phonation, and articulation. Pressure build-up patterns preceding the onset of phonation were studied in 573 fluent utterances of 10 stutterers and in 552 utterances of 7 control subjects. Stutterers evidenced deviant patterns of subglottal pressure build-up much more often than did control speakers. Electroglottographic records of voice onset were classified as either abrupt or gentle and with respect to the presence or absence of gross irregularities in amplitude (shimmer) and period duration (jitter). Stutterers evidenced abrupt voice onsets significantly more often than did controls. The occurrence of jitter and shimmer, however, did not differ significantly across the groups. Acoustic measures of abruptness of voice onset, first syllable duration, and average syllable duration were also obtained, but they failed to differ significantly between the two groups. This study corroborates previous findings that perceptually fluent utterances of stutterers may differ, on a physiological level, from the speech of nonstutterers.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Selected temporal aspects of coordination during fluent speech of young stutterers.

The purpose of this study was to compare the onsets, offsets, and durations of respiratory, articulatory, and laryngeal behaviors associated with the perceptually fluent speech of young stutterers (n = 8) to those of their normally fluent peers (n = 8). Simultaneous recordings of the targeted behaviors were made using noninvasive, minimally intrusive instrumentation. Specific temporal parameters of coordination--onsets, offsets, and durations of muscle activity and structural movement--were assessed within a particular component of the speech production system (e.g., onset of lower lip closing relative to lower lip opening muscle activity) as well as between different components (e.g., onset of rib cage deflation relative to onset of vocal fold contact for voicing). Results indicated that there were neither statistically significant nor apparent differences between the perceptually fluent speech of young stutterers and that of their normally fluent peers in terms of selected temporal characteristics of coordination. Findings suggest that the molar temporal characteristics of coordination for young stutterers' fluent speech production(s) are not appreciably different from those of their normally fluent peers and further, any temporal characteristics of stutterers' fluent speech that do differ from normal are probably brief, as well as subtle, in nature.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1989

Neural drive to muscles in stuttering.

EMG recordings were made from muscles of the jaw, lip, and neck during speech of 10 stutterers and 10 nonstutterers. One-second records of disfluent behaviors of stutterers and of fluent speech of the normal speakers were analyzed by computing cross correlations between all possible muscle pairs and spectra for each muscle channel. The cross correlation analysis indicated that for both the disfluent behavior of stutterers and the fluent speech of nonstutterers, jaw muscles (including antagonistic pairs), lip muscles, and neck muscles tend to be coactivated. Thus, no dramatic differences in muscle activation patterns were revealed in the correlational analysis. In contrast, spectral analysis revealed differences between muscle activity during disfluent behavior and fluent speech. During disfluencies the muscles of 6 of the stutterers showed large, rhythmic oscillations in the frequency range of 5 to 12 Hz. Large oscillations were not observed in this frequency range in the muscle activity of normal speakers. The oscillations in muscle activity during disfluencies generally occurred at the same frequency in the various muscle systems studied. These results suggest that diverse muscles are subject to common oscillatory synaptic drive during disfluent behaviors and that this drive is disruptive to speech production. A reasonable speculation is that the disruptive oscillatory drive is produced by tremorogenic mechanisms.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Task complexity and manual reaction times in people who stutter.

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that manual reaction time differences between people who stutter and those who do not reflect the information processing complexity of the task. The study focused on decision complexity in a reaction time paradigm. One manipulation involved increasing the number of response alternatives. The second involved the spatial contiguity of signal and response locus. Twenty-four adult stutterers and 24 nonstutterers were compared with respect to response initiation and completion times on the various task conditions. Contrary to the hypothesis, there was no significant Group x Complexity interaction in the analysis of either response measure for either complexity manipulation. Stutterers were slower than nonstutterers overall, but with increasing decision complexity, the group response times paralleled one another. It is concluded that whatever response planning and organization deficit there may be in people who stutter, it is independent of decision complexity but may be evident in manipulations of response complexity defined in terms of spatial and temporal coordination.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Stuttering and speech naturalness: audio and audiovisual judgments.

Unsophisticated raters, using 9-point interval scales, judged speech naturalness and stuttering severity of recorded stutterer and nonstutterer speech samples. Raters judged separately the audio-only and audiovisual presentations of each sample. For speech naturalness judgments of stutterer samples, raters invariably judged the audiovisual presentation more unnatural than the audio presentation of the same sample; but for the nonstutterer samples, there was no difference between audio and audiovisual naturalness ratings. Stuttering severity ratings did not differ significantly between audio and audiovisual presentations of the same samples. Rater reliability, interrater agreement, and intrarater agreement for speech naturalness judgments were assessed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Choosing a treatment procedure for early stuttering: issues and future directions.

The new responsibility of speech-language pathologists to provide direct, early intervention for stuttering creates a further responsibility for them to choose justifiable treatment procedures for that intervention. This paper has two purposes. The first is to encourage clinicians to evaluate the conceptual and practical aspects of the treatments they use for early stuttering. The second purpose of the paper is to overview available early intervention procedures and consider the advantages, disadvantages, and prominent issues associated with each. The procedures considered are environment manipulation, prolonged speech, and response-contingent stimulation. It is concluded that clinicians have no cause to be satisfied with any currently available early intervention procedure. Further, it is concluded that (a) although anticipatory struggle theories have made a useful contribution to scholarship, their line of theoretical reasoning is questionable for clinical practice; (b) although theoretically sound for the purpose, variants of prolonged speech pose prohibitive conceptual and practical shortcomings if they are used to treat very young stuttering children; (c) despite its disadvantages, response contingent stimulation is the most conceptually and practically justifiable method for early intervention with stuttering.

Environment↗
PubMed1992

Speaking rates, response time latencies, and interrupting behaviors of young stutterers, nonstutterers, and their mothers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the speaking rates, interrupting behaviors, and response time latencies (RTL) produced by stuttering and nonstuttering children and their mothers, and the relationship these three paralinguistic behaviors have to children's speech disfluencies. Subjects were 13 boys who stutter (mean age = 4:0) and their mothers and 13 nonstuttering boys (mean age = 4:0) and their mothers. No significant differences were found between the two groups of children or between the two groups of mothers for any of the three paralinguistic behaviors with the exception that the mothers of nonstuttering children exhibited significantly (p < 0.01) faster rates of speech than either group of children. A strong positive correlation (r = .84) was found between stuttering children's scores on the Stuttering Severity Instrument (Riley, 1980) and the durations of the overlapping portions of their mothers' interruptions (i.e., their simultalk). Findings of this study are taken to support a facilitative demands-capacities model of conversational interaction in which mothers adjust the demands of their speaking models in response to their children's demonstrated capacities for fluent speech production.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Subjective anxiety measurements and cortisol responses in adults who stutter.

Anxiety, as measured by self-report inventories and salivary cortisol levels, was examined in 11 males who stutter and 11 males who do not stutter during baseline, low stress, and high stress sessions. During the high stress session salivary cortisol was significantly greater in persons who stutter than in persons who do not stutter. No significant differences were found between the two groups on the State-Anxiety Inventory, Trait-Anxiety Inventory, or the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension. Significant differences in anxiety levels among the baseline, low stress, and high stress sessions for both groups of subjects were found for the State-Anxiety Inventory. No other significant differences or relationships were found between the two groups.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

A control/experimental trial of an operant treatment for early stuttering.

A preliminary study (Onslow, Costa, & Rue, 1990) suggested that a parent-conducted program of verbal response-contingent stimulation would be an effective treatment for stuttering children younger than 5 years. The present study was designed to expand those preliminary findings by using a larger group of children and by comparing them to a control group of children. Twelve children in the experimental group achieved median percent syllables stuttered (%SS) scores below 1.0 for a 12-month posttreatment period. The children's treatments were completed in a median of 10.5 1-hour clinic sessions and a median of 84.5 days from the start of treatment. The majority of parents of the control children withdrew from the study and elected to have treatment begin for their child. These results suggest that the program may be a cost-effective method for managing a clinical caseload of stuttering children younger than 5 years. It is suggested that controlled clinical trials cannot be used validly or ethically to determine the number of cases of early stuttering who recover without formal intervention.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1994

Speech rates and turn-taking behaviors of children who stutter and their fathers.

Paralinguistic behaviors, including speech rates and turn-taking behaviors, of boys who stutter and boys who do not stutter and their fathers were investigated. Subjects were 11 boys who stutter (mean age = 5:1) and their fathers and 11 age-matched (+/- 3 months) nonstuttering boys (mean age = 5:1) and their fathers. Spontaneous conversational speech was obtained from each father and son during approximately 45 minutes of videotaped free play in a clinic setting. Measures of overall, articulatory, and dyadic speaking rates, interruptions, response time latencies, and disfluency characteristics were derived using the videotapes and computer-assisted analyses of the acoustic signal from each conversational sample. Two-factor repeated measures ANOVAs were performed on each of the paralinguistic variables for the 11 sets of age-matched father-son pairs. Fathers produced faster speaking rates, higher frequencies of interruptions and shorter response time latencies than sons. No significant differences were found in comparisons of the two groups of fathers or of the two groups of children for any of the paralinguistic behaviors. A significant positive correlation was found between the SSI scores of children who stutter and the dyadic speaking rates of these children and their fathers. Results partially extend those of Kelly and Conture (1992) for mothers and children, but some potentially important differences emerge between fathers' and mothers' (para)linguistic behaviors in interaction with their children.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1995

Middle latency auditory responses in males who stutter.

Little research exists that explores subcortical function in people who stutter. One study suggested that auditory middle latency response Wave Pb was prolonged in subjects who stutter as compared to controls. Other studies have suggested that Pb was generated within the thalamic portion of the reticular system. MLRs were recorded from 10 males who stutter and 10 controls using a variety of filter passbands in response to clicks presented binaurally at various rates. The latency of Pb was found to be significantly shorter in the group of subjects who stutter.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1995

Stuttering includes both within-word and between-word disfluencies.

A growing practice divides stuttered disfluencies from normal disfluencies by defining the former as "within-word" and the latter as "between-word." After reviewing the available logical and empirical evidence, this note concludes that the unstated implications of a strong form of this definition (that no between-word disfluencies are stuttering and that all within-word disfluencies are stuttering) cannot currently be supported. A weaker form of this definition might prove useful for the definition and measurement of stuttering, but only if such a definition can be both internally consistent and consistent with available clinical and empirical information.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

Part-word repetitions by persons who stutter: fragment types and their articulatory processes.

One of the core features of developmental stuttering is part-word repetition followed by fluent production (resolution) of the target word. The purpose of the study is to compare the spectro-temporal dimensions of fragments with the spectro-temporal dimensions of the resolution to define fragment types and develop articulatory interpretation of termination-restart cycles. From the acoustic recordings of six adult males who stutter, 142 stuttering events on words beginning with stops were isolated, excerpted, and digitized. The stuttering events occurred during either spontaneous speech or reading. The consecutive articulatory phases of fragments were classified and compared with the corresponding phases in resolutions. We found that (a) there are two basic types of fragments--those with vowels and those without, (b) the type of fragment produced is strongly influenced by the voicing status of the stop, (c) the fragments without vowels tend to have longer stop closure duration than the stops in the resolutions, (d) there are two subtypes in fragments with vowels--those with vowels shorter than and those with vowels longer than the vowels in the resolutions, (e) the shorter vowels differ spectro-temporally from the vowels in resolutions, and (f) the longer vowels differ temporally from the vowels in the resolutions. We discuss the articulatory implications of the acoustic data for each fragment type in the context of speech as an act designed to achieve contextually conditioned acoustic goals.

Adult↗