The etiology of persistent stuttering is unknown, but stuttering has been attributed to multiple potential factors, including difficulty in processing language-related information, but findings remain inconclusive regarding any "specific" linguistic deficit potentially causing stuttering. One particular challenge in drawing conclusions is the…

Riley's Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI) is widely used. The manuals allow SSI assessments to be made in different ways (e.g. from digital recordings or whilst listening to speech live). Digital recordings allow segments to be selected and listened to, whereas the entire recording has to be judged when listened to live. Comparison was made…

The phonological complexity of dysfluencies in those who clutter and/or stutter may help us better understand phonetic factors in these two types of fluency disorders. In this preliminary investigation, cases were three 14-year-old males, diagnosed as a Stutterer, a Clutterer, and a Stutterer-Clutterer. Spontaneous speech samples were transcribed,…

Teachers often report difficulty in knowing how to best help a child who stutters in the classroom. Many children who stutter can handle oral reading tasks satisfactorily, particularly if they are encouraged to practice at home. Some, however, will stutter severely while reading aloud in class. Teachers should always keep in mind that each child…

A recent study by Iverach et al. ("Journal of Communication Disorders," 2010) compared persons who stutter with two normative samples in the context of the five-factor model of personality measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Persons who stutter were characterized by higher "Neuroticism," lower…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether children who stutter (CWS) and typically developing children (TDC) differ from each other on composite temperament factors or on individual temperament scales. Methods: Participants consisted of 116 age and gender-matched CWS and TDC (3.04-8.11). Temperament was assessed with a Dutch…

Purpose: Behavioral genetic studies of speech fluency have focused on participants who present with clinical stuttering. Knowledge about genetic influences on the development and regulation of normal speech fluency is limited. The primary aims of this study were to identify the heritability of stuttering and high nonfluency and to assess the…

Purpose: This pretest-posttest study examined the feasibility of using a curriculum-level stuttering education and bullying awareness and prevention program to improve peer attitudes toward children who stutter and attitudes toward bullying. Knowledge about potential responses to bullying and students' liking of the program also were examined.…

Although group therapy is recommended for school-aged children who stutter (CWS), it is not widely researched. This study aimed to explore this provision, using a postal survey which investigated the current practices of Speech & Language Therapists (SLTs) in the UK. Seventy percent of SLT services provided some group therapy, but the level of…

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relation between utterance complexity and utterance position and the tendency to stutter on function words in preschool-age children who stutter (CWS). Two separate studies involving two different groups of participants (Study 1, n = 30; Study 2, n = 30) were conducted. Participants were…

Three experiments were designed to test whether perception and action are coordinated in a way that distinguishes sequencing from timing (Pfordresher, 2003). Each experiment incorporated a trial design in which altered auditory feedback (AAF) was presented for varying lengths of time and then withdrawn. Experiments 1 and 2 included AAF that…

Purpose: This study was designed to (a) compare the speech fluency of school-age children who do and do not stutter (CWS and CWNS, respectively) within 2 standard diagnostic speaking contexts (conversation and narration) while also controlling for speaking topic, and (b) examine the extent to which children's performance on such discourse tasks is…

Past research with the Communication Attitude Test (CAT) has shown it to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing speech-associated attitude of children who stutter (CWS). However, in Japan, the CAT has not been used extensively to examine the communication attitude of CWS. The purpose of this study was to determine if a Japanese version…

Purpose: Stereotypes toward stuttering and people who stutter (PWS) are widespread in the general public irrespective of age, level of education, culture, geographic location and profession. Negative attitudes held by persons of authority like teachers can lead to social, economic and educational obstacles in the lives of PWS. Method: The current…

Stuttering is a disorder of speech production that typically arises in the preschool years, and many accounts of its onset and development implicate language and motor processes as critical underlying factors. There have, however, been very few studies of speech motor control processes in preschool children who stutter. Hearing novel nonwords and…