Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefit of devices delivering altered auditory feedback (AAF) as a therapeutic alternative for those who stutter. Aims: The effectiveness of a device delivering AAF (SpeechEasy®) was compared with behavioural techniques in the treatment of stuttering in a randomized clinical trial. Methods &…

Purpose: A number of studies with large sample sizes have reported lower prevalence of stuttering in children with significant hearing loss compared to children without hearing loss. This study used a parent questionnaire to investigate the characteristics of stuttering (e.g., incidence, prevalence, and age of onset) in children who are hard of…

Background: Metronome-paced speech results in the elimination, or substantial reduction, of stuttering moments. The cause of fluency during this fluency-inducing condition is unknown. Several investigations have reported changes in speech pattern characteristics from a control condition to a metronome-paced speech condition, but failure to control…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether brain activity related to the presence of stuttering can be identified with rapid functional MRI (fMRI) sequences that involved overt and covert speech processing tasks. The long-term goal is to develop sensitive fMRI approaches with developmentally appropriate tasks to identify deviant speech…

Background: Previous studies have found simultaneous increases in skin conductance response and decreases in heart rate when normally fluent speakers watched and listened to stuttered speech compared with fluent speech, suggesting that stuttering induces arousal and emotional unpleasantness in listeners. However, physiological responses of persons…

Although persistent developmental stuttering is known to affect daily living, just how great the impact is remains unclear. Furthermore, little is known about the underlying mechanisms which lead to a diminished quality of life (QoL). The primary objective of this study is to explore to what extent QoL is impaired in adults who stutter (AWS). In…

Two studies compared the accuracy and efficiency of initiating oral reading of nonsense syllables by persons who stutter (PWS) and fluent speakers (PNS) over practise. Findings of Study One, comparing 12 PWS and 12 PNS, replicated previous findings of slow speech sequence initiation over practise by PWS relative to PNS. In Study Two, nine PWS and…

The purpose of this study was to assess the nonword repetition skills of 24 children who do (CWS; n=12) and do not stutter (CWNS; n=12) between the ages of 3;0 and 5;2. Findings revealed that CWS produced significantly fewer correct two- and three-syllable nonword repetitions and made significantly more phoneme errors on three-syllable nonwords…

This study compared the disfluencies of German-speaking preschool children who stutter (CWS, N=24) with those produced by age- and sex-matched comparison children who do not stutter (CWNS, N=24). In accordance with Yairi and Ambrose's [Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N. (1992). A longitudinal study of stuttering in children: A preliminary report.…

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)

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)

This study of 20 stuttering and 20 nonstuttering preschool children found that stuttering children scored lower on 7 out of 8 language measures, with no significant intergroup differences on articulation proficiency or fluency. There were few significant correlations between measures of stuttering rate, speaking rate, and language performance…