Purpose: Disfluency clusters in preschool children were analyzed to determine whether they occurred at rates above chance, whether they changed over time, and whether they could differentiate children who would later persist in, or recover from, stuttering. Method: Thirty-two children recruited near stuttering onset were grouped on the basis of…

There is a substantial amount of literature reporting the incidence of phonological difficulties to be higher for children who stutter when compared to normally fluent children, suggesting a link between stuttering and phonology. In view of this, the purpose of the investigation was to determine whether, among children who stutter, there are…

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…

Genome-wide linkage and association analyses were conducted to identify genetic determinants of stuttering in a founder population in which 48 individuals affected with stuttering are connected in a single 232-person genealogy. A novel approach was devised to account for all necessary relationships to enable multipoint linkage analysis. Regions…

The relation between stuttering and aspects of language, including phonology, has been investigated for many years. Whereas past literature reported that the incidence of phonological difficulties is higher for children who stutter when compared to normally fluent children, the suggestion of association between the two disorders also drew several…

Purpose: In this study, the authors sought to determine the prevalence of stuttering in African American (AA) 2- to 5-year-olds as compared with same-age European Americans (EAs). Method: A total of 3,164 children participated: 2,223 AAs and 941 EAs. Data were collected using a 3-pronged approach that included investigators' individual…

The relationships between the length of the speech sample and the resulting disfluency data in 20 stuttering children who exhibited a wide range of disfluency levels were investigated. Specifically, the study examined whether the relative number of stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) per 100 syllables, as well as the length of disfluencies (number…

Speech analysis of 10 two- to three-year-olds diagnosed by parents as having begun stuttering and 10 matched normally speaking children indicated that stutterers were three times more disfluent than nonstutterers. Part-word repetitions and sound prolongations were found to distinguish the two groups significantly. (Author/CL)

This study compared duration characteristics of single-syllable whole-word repetitions and part-word repetitions in the speech of 20 preschool children who stuttered, recorded near the onset of their stuttering, to those of 20 nonstuttering children. The duration of silent intervals between spoken segments within repetitions was found to be…

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…

Cluster formation in speech disfluencies of 15 preschool stuttering children and 15 nonstuttering controls was studied and compared. Clustering was found to be a significant factor in disfluent speech for both normal and stuttering children, but proportions of clustered disfluencies and size of clusters were significantly greater in the…

Immediate and extended families of 66 stuttering children were investigated to determine frequencies of persistent and recovered stuttering. Recovery was far more common among females than males. Recovery or persistence was found to be transmitted, but the two types are not genetically independent, consistent with hypothesis that both forms share…

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.…