This study investigated changes in the speech patterns of young adult male subjects when stuttering was modified by deliberately prolonging speech. Three subjects showed clinically significant stuttering reductions when using prolonged speech to reduce their stuttering. Resulting speech was perceptually stutter free. Acoustic and…

Twelve adult stutterers were instructed to self-rate the speech naturalness (how natural their speech sounds) and feel naturalness (the amount of attention they are paying to the way they are speaking) of their speech under a variety of conditions across repeated rating occasions. Results showed that subjects were relatively consistent and valid…

Three groups of judges (n=18) differing in stuttering judgment experience identified stuttering events in repeated speech samples, to investigate a measurement methodology based on time-interval analyses. Results showed interjudge agreement was affected by the particular speech sample, the judges' previous experience, and the length of the…

This study analyzed spontaneous speech samples of 10 children (ages 10-14) who stuttered, with no history of treatment based on prolonged speech. Acoustic measures showed no significant posttreatment increases in durations of acoustic segments. However, for acoustic measures of vowel duration and articulation rate, posttreatment speech samples…

This study examined the effects of structured conversational turn-taking on disfluencies and speech rate of a boy (age 5) who stuttered, based on dinner-time conversations in the subject's home. Results indicated that disfluencies decreased when structured conversational turn-taking was instituted and increased when turn-taking conditions were not…

This replication study of time-interval judgments of stuttering found higher interjudge agreement than previously reported for event-based analyses of stuttering judgments or time-interval analyses of event judgments. Judges with high intrajudge agreement levels also showed higher interjudge agreement levels than did judges with low intrajudge…

Article examines the effects of self-modeling from repeated observations of oneself on edited videotapes as an intervention for stuttering in three adolescent students. After viewing intervention tapes, students' stuttering fell substantially below baseline levels. A two-year follow-up indicated that Student 3 did not stutter in conversational…

Stuttering on function words was examined in 51 children and adults who stutter. Stuttering rate was a function of age (children stuttered more on function words), position (function words in early positions in utterances were more likely to be stuttered), and on whether the function word occurred before or after the single content word.…

This study investigated the effects of contextualization on fluency in 35 school-age children with either stuttering, language impairment, or normal fluency. Analysis of the children's discourse samples, half of which were produced with contextual cues, found stutterers demonstrated a significant reduction in frequency of stuttering in the…

Presents a rationale and methodology for a self-adjusting "fluency sensitive" approach to working with children who exhibit overt speech-fluency interruptions and a minimal amount of avoidance behavior. The approach emphasizes repeated experiences of volitional increases and decreases in loudness and pauses. Case examples demonstrate how several…

The authors (Ingham et al.) of the original report respond to criticisms by Kalinowski et al. that they misinterpreted their data in a study of the effects of frequency-altered feedback on stuttering in four single-subject design investigations. They also address larger issues concerning altered auditory feedback procedures. (DB)

This study evaluated recorded performances of 84 children of whom 22 had persistent stuttering. Although initially the persistent stuttering group had significantly poorer phonological skills, assessment after 1 and 2 years found no differences indicating faster phonological improvement for the persistent stuttering group. Results raise questions…

Fluency disorders are communicative disabilities that can lead to psychosocial and emotional issues. The most prevalent of these disorders is stuttering. People who stutter may cope with stigmatization and discrimination throughout their lives as a result of misconceptions and misinformation about the disability's etiology and manifestations.…

This article reports a gender replication study of the P. T. Fox et a. (2000) performance correlation analysis of neural systems that distinguish between normal and stuttered speech in adult males. Positron-emission tomographic (PET) images of cerebral blood flow (CBF) were correlated with speech behavior scores obtained during PET imaging for 10…

Identity is an important concept to consider when describing human development. To date, relatively few articles have addressed file application of identity theory, especially that concerned with the social construction, to stuttering. This article examines why the construction of a positive identity may be difficult due to the negative effect of…