Speech language pathologists providing early intervention services for stuttering are urged to evaluate conceptual and practical aspects of various intervention procedures. After a review of three treatment methods (environment manipulation, prolonged speech, and response-contingent stimulation), the article concludes that response-contingent…

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…

Stuttered sentences pronounced by 12 4- to 6-year-old children in spontaneous conversation were analyzed for length and grammatical complexity. Results indicated that sentences in which stuttering occurred within the first three words were significantly longer and more complex than sentences where no fluency failure was found. Implications for…

Central auditory function was assessed in 10 stutterers and 10 nonstutterers between the ages of 10 and 35 years, and the performance of the two groups compared for seven audiometric procedures, including acoustic reflex threshold and acoustic reflex amplitude function. (Author)

Tape recorded speech samples from 10 4-year-old boys in their preschool classroom and in a structured interview situation were compared for frequency and duration of disfluency. (KW)

Utterances from stuttering and normally speaking children, aged two through four years, were analyzed by clinicians specializing in stuttering, general clinicians, and university students (total n=25). Results indicated that the validity of the data language used by researchers to describe stuttered and normal speech in early childhood may be…

The characteristic features of psychogenic stuttering of adult onset are reviewed, and four cases of this disorder are presented. Psychogenic stuttering of adult onset is classified as a conversion reaction, and tentative criteria for this diagnosis are proposed. (Author/JDD)

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)

Pressure buildup patterns preceding the onset of phonation were studied in 573 fluent utterances of 10 stutterers and in 552 utterances of 7 controls. Stutterers evidenced deviant patterns of subglottal pressure buildup and abrupt voice onsets more often than did controls; occurrence of jitter and shimmer did not differ significantly. (Author/JDD)