Interviews with parents of 87 preschool children within a year of a stuttering diagnosis found that onset tended to occur earlier than was previously thought and was sudden and/or severe in many cases; about twice as many boys as girls stuttered; and there was a positive relationship between severe stuttering and sudden onset. (DB)

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…

Investigated effects of stuttering on gesture for adults and children. Found through transcription of videotaped narratives that during bouts of stuttering, the coexpressed gesture always waits for fluent speech to resume. Also found that the lower ratio of spoken words to coexpressed gestures for children may be due to lower attentional/cognitive…

College students (n=465) rated 5 descriptions: 1 portraying an individual without a disorder and 4 depicting various communicative disorders. The descriptions with no disorder and with a language disorder were rated significantly lower in ambition than those depicting stuttering, voice, or articulation disorders. Geographical location and age of…

The possible relation between stuttering and the basal ganglia is discussed. Important clues to the pathophysiology of stuttering are given by conditions known to alleviate dysfluency, like the rhythm effect, chorus speech, and singing. Information regarding pharmacologic trials, lesion studies, brain imaging, genetics, and developmental changes…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether people who stutter experience role entrapment in the form of vocational stereotyping. To accomplish this, 385 university students reported their perceptions of appropriate career choices for people who stutter. Direct survey procedures, utilizing the newly developed Vocational Advice Scale (VAS),…

Stuttering is a complex condition, and, in the past, there was not significant evidence to prove any one theory as to its cause. Most researchers now agree that stuttering is mainly a genetic disorder that is sometimes aggravated or brought on by developmental and environmental factors. In genetic research there have been studies on families in…

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…

In a two part article the author first discusses the importance of fluency, rate, breathstream management, prosody, and self-confidence to the replacement of stuttering with normal speech; and second outlines specific clinical procedures for achieving these goals with adult and adolescent stutterers. (Author/LS)

A question-and-answer format is used in this booklet to provide concise, practical information for adults concerned about a preschool child who frequently hesitates and repeats when speaking. The nature of the preschooler's repetitions and hesitations, as well as the role listeners can play in dealing with these stuttering-like behaviors, are…

In recent years, most disagreement about stuttering therapy has boiled down to a preference for one of two major approaches. Some clinicians have preferred to help stutterers learn not to avoid stuttering, but to approach it and to learn to stutter in simpler and easier ways; this approach is known as stuttering modification therapy. Proponents of…

Dialysis encephalopathy is a progressive neurological disorder occurring after long-term hemodialysis in some renal failure patients. Accumulation of aluminum in the brain is suspected as its cause, and the use of reverse osmosis of the dialysis water and administration of desferrioxamine to the patient have been successful in reducing the…