One hundred thirty-three kindergarten through sixth-grade classroom teachers in four school districts completed questionnaries designed to determine whether they would be more likely to refer a boy than a girl with an identical communication disorder. (Author/PHR)

A survey of 1,184 speech language pathologists found that of 2,628 children (grades 1-12) who stuttered, 62.6% had other concurring speech disorders, language disorders, or non-speech-language disorders. Articulation disorders (33.5%) and phonology disorders (12.7%) were the most frequently reported. Males were more likely to exhibit co-occurring…

Fourteen adults who stuttered and 14 adults who did not participated in a self-paced word-by-word reading experiment. Results indicated that the two groups were not different with respect to speed of word identification but that persons who stuttered retrieved semantic information more slowly than those who did not stutter. (Author/PB)

This paper presents results of a controlled trial of 3 child stuttering treatment strategies in 97 subjects. All 3 treatments (electromyography feedback, intensive smooth speech, and home-based smooth speech) were very successful in the long term for 70% of the group, with electromyography and home-based treatment appearing to be especially…

This article explores the gene-finding process for developmental speech disorders (DSDs), specifically disorders of articulation/phonology and stuttering. It reviews existing behavioral genetic studies of these phenotypes, discusses roadblocks that may impede the molecular study of DSDs, and reviews the findings of the small number of molecular…

A study investigated frequency change and duration of the second formant (F2) transition in speech samples recorded close to stuttering onset in 10 preschoolers who stutter, 10 who recovered from stuttering, and 10 controls. Near stuttering onset, children whose stuttering persisted demonstrated significantly smaller frequency change than the…

Eighty-four female nonstutterers examined videotapes of two mild and two severe male stutterers acknowledging and not acknowledging their stuttering. Nonstutterers preferred to interact with acknowledging stutterers and gave them more favorable ratings on intelligence, personality, and appearance. (Author/JDD)

The importance of including parents and teachers in the process of therapy for children who stutter is addressed, and viewing intervention along a therapy continuum incorporating both fluency-shaping and stuttering modification philosophies is recommended. Other topics presented include student attitudes and feelings, grouping and scheduling,…

This paper reviews studies of conversational turn-management timing behaviors used by children who stutter and their parents. Temporal aspects of conversations between children who stutter and their parents do not differ significantly from parent-nonstuttering child conversations. Parental manipulation of speech rate and response-time latency may…

This article evaluates the extent to which syntactic, lexical, and conversational factors can significantly predict the frequency and loci of stuttered moments in children's speech. A synthesis of the experimental and clinical evidence suggests ways in which the assessment and remediation of fluency disorders in children can be tailored to…

Two studies of a single case (a 5-year-old girl) considered variables in indirect stuttering treatment. In the first study, mother's speech rate was found to correlate with the child's stuttering; in the second study, different parent variables were found to relate to either primary (effortless) or secondary (tense) stuttering. (Author/DB)

Four studies evaluated perceptions of fluency of persons who had been treated with the "smooth speech" fluency shaping technique. The studies examined (1) client satisfaction with treatment; (2) increased employment opportunities for program completers; (3) employer perceptions of employees' speech quality; and (4) possible determinants…

A study investigated speech disfluency and stuttering behaviors in 3- and 4-year old children who do (CWS, n=36) and do not (CWNS, n=36) stutter. Four out of 5 measures significantly differed between groups. Within the CWS group there was a significant relationship between stuttering onset and percentage of stuttering-like disfluencies. (Contains…