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…

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…

This five-chapter book describes how clinicians (speech teachers, therapists, pathologists) can work effectively with young stutterers. The information contained in this booklet was obtained through an extensive program of study, testing, and research carried on for several years. The chapter on the "borderline stutterer" includes information on…

Paper drawn from a doctoral dissertation completed under the direction of Dorothy Sherman. (JJ)

Two operant speech treatment programs for establishing fluent speech--Delayed Auditory Feedback and Gradual Increase in Length and Complexity of Utterance--were compared, with 24 elementary-secondary level students. Both programs produced important improvement in fluency in a reasonable time period and resulted in similar levels of transfer and…

Testing of 17 adult and 25 adolescent stutterers during a 12-month to 24-month postintensive treatment phase revealed that 69% of subjects maintained satisfactory fluency on surprise phone calls at home/work and 80% of subjects rated their speech fluency as good or fair on the Speech Performance Questionnaire. (Author/JDD)

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…

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.…

A three-factor model for the management of early childhood stuttering is proposed that takes into account stuttering's psychosocial, psycholinguistic, and physiological aspects. The primary focus of the present article is the psycholinguistic factor. To this end, a rationale for the use of language-based therapy is presented, together with…

Compared in a 2-year study were four establishment of fluency programs in a public school setting with 40 7- to 16-year-old children who stuttered. The programs included programmed traditional (PT), delayed auditory feedback (DAF), pause (P), and gradual increase in length and complexity of utterance (GILCU). During the first year, eight speech…