Presents evidence suggesting that the difference between stuttering and normal nonfluency in young children is one of degree only. It hypothesizes that heavy pressure on the child to speak well increases nonfluency. Bibliography. (RW)

Disfluency characteristics of 36 nonstuttering boys aged two, four, and six years were analyzed from tape recorded speech samples made during free play within neutral and stress situations. Comparisons of frequency of disfluency were made among the different ages within each situation and between the neutral and stress situations. (Author)

There was a significant decrease in the difference between observed and expected probabilities over the first 30 words following a stutter. Also, the two adult Ss initially increased their stuttering rate. Findings supported a combination of the anxiety and feedback models of A. W. Still and C. A. Sherrard. (Author/DLS)

The speech of 12 adults in prolonged speech treatment was assessed prior to treatment and after discharge. Results showed that stuttering was eliminated without using unusually slow or unnatural speech patterns, and many clients maintained stutter-free speech at high rates of speech. Speech rate correlated to perceived posttreatment speech…

Relative timing of 15 stutterers' speech was compared with 15 nonstutterers, using two fluent utterances of the same phonetic content. Relative timing was not influenced by whether the talker was a stutterer or not, nor by the presence of fluency or disfluency in the environment in which the utterance occurred. (Author/JDD)

A study of eight Dutch individuals (ages 14 to 56) who stutter found that adaptation of stuttering frequency during repeated readings may be a result of motor learning. Furthermore, during repeated readings, reductions in stuttering frequency were not related to reductions in the variability of acoustically derived measures of speech production.…

Comparison of disfluent conversational utterances of 14 children who stutter and 14 children (mean age of both groups 52 months) who do not stutter found that for both groups, disfluency clusters were typically produced at clause onset and within the most complex linguistic contexts and that they reflect the effects of producing multiple syntactic…

One of a series of semi-annual reports, this publication contains 18 articles which report the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instruments for its investigation, and practical applications. Articles are as follows: "The Emergence of Native-Language Phonological Influences in Infants: A Perceptual Assimilation…

A RATIONALE FOR SPEECH AND HEARING PROGRAM RECORD KEEPING AND REPORTING IS PRESENTED ALONG WITH A COMPREHENSIVE SET OF FORMS. FORMS ARE AVAILABLE TO COVER ALL SITUATIONS IN DIAGNOSIS AND PROGRESS, COMMUNICATION TO OTHER PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE, AND COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS. (MK)

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)

Examines the potential usefulness of various procedures employed to measure the adaptation in frequency rate of fluency failure, adaptation in temporal rate of speech, and automated analysis of on-off speech patterns in differentiating stuttering from cluttering. (SCC)