A reliable and practical subtype system of stuttering should enhance all related scientific work concerned with this disorder. Although a fair number of classification systems have been offered, to date, none has received wide recognition or has been routinely applied in research or clinical spheres. Whereas progress has been made in understanding…

Conversational speech of five children who stutter was recorded and then portions manipulated to modify interval duration and vowel duration. Results indicated that both interval and vowel durations moderately affected listeners' perception of stuttering. Generally, repetitions with short vowel and interval durations were judged as more…

Comparison of acoustic correlates of phonatory control in the fluent utterances of 10 preschool-aged boys who were stutterers and in nonstuttering control subjects found significant differences between the two groups for shimmer measures. (Author/DB)

The authors of a research report (1999) on the diagnosis of stuttering in young children respond to a critical letter by questioning the accuracy, validity, credibility, and internal consistency of the letter writer's criticisms. The reply goes on to clarify the evaluation of stuttering-like disfluencies and single-syllable word repetitions in…

This response to a letter (EC 627 691) critical of the authors' research report (1999) on the diagnosis of stuttering in young children defends their subject selection criteria, justifies their use of a weighted measure of stuttering-like disfluencies, and notes continuing disagreement concerning the difference between stuttering and disfluency.…

This study compared duration characteristics of single repetitions of single-syllable words in the speech of 15 preschool children near the onset of stuttering to those of 18 nonstuttering children. There appeared to be a tendency for repetitions of very early stutterers to be faster than repetitions of nonstuttering children. (Author/DB)

Seventy-nine children (ages 3 through 7) were asked to discriminate between the speech (fluent and disfluent) of two puppets, identify the one who "speaks like you," and evaluate their speech. Children from age 3 showed evidence of some awareness of disfluencies but most children reached full awareness at 5. Negative evaluation of…

This study evaluated recorded performances of 84 children of whom 22 had persistent stuttering. Although initially the persistent stuttering group had significantly poorer phonological skills, assessment after 1 and 2 years found no differences indicating faster phonological improvement for the persistent stuttering group. Results raise questions…

Preschool children (n=27) were followed for 2 to 12 years after stuttering onset. Findings indicated a marked deceleration in the mean frequency of stuttering-like disfluencies. Most of the reduction took place early, especially near the end of the first year postonset. Chronic and recovering stutterers could be distinguished by 20 months…

Sixteen preschool subjects were evaluated within several weeks after stuttering onset and followed for six months. Findings showed a strong tendency for reduction in stuttering-like disfluencies, number of head/face movements, and parent and clinician severity ratings of stuttering. Several subjects, including severe cases, exhibited complete…

Interviews with parents of 87 preschool children within a year of a stuttering diagnosis found that onset tended to occur earlier than was previously thought and was sudden and/or severe in many cases; about twice as many boys as girls stuttered; and there was a positive relationship between severe stuttering and sudden onset. (DB)