[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Stacie Hryniewicz
Date: 13 Oct 2010
Time: 17:45:11 -0500
Remote Name: 24.59.74.19
Hi Dr. Sawyer, My name is Stacie and I'm a first year graduate student in speech language pathology. I have just read your article and found it quite interesting. My question pertains to disfluencies in proximity to each other (i.e. clusters) in preschool children as you briefly mentioned in your article. Currently, I'm on a preschool diagnostic team. I have assessed and taken disfluency counts on preschoolers this semester. I was wondering in your experience if and how helpful you have found disfluency in clusters to differentiate children who stutter from normally fluent children? In my experience, disfluency counts have served as a valid, quick overview of a child's type and frequency of disfluencies. Thus, we have mainly relied on the type and frequency to distinguish normally fluent children from children who stutter--thus speculating if they will persist or naturally grow out of it. Also, I was wondering if disfluency counts can be reliable to assess more specific details such as disfluency in clusters or secondary behaviors associated with stuttering?Thank you for your time!