Ladoucheur, R., & Saint-Laurent, L. (1986). Stuttering: A multidimensional treatment
and evaluation
package. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 11, 93-103.
The treatment goals of this study were to eliminate behavioral, emotional, and cognitive
difficulties that are associated with stuttering. Eight people who stutter and eight people
who do not stutter were involved in this treatment study. Subjects were treated in a
group setting with a total of four people in each group. They met twice each week for
two-hour sessions. Treatment focused on five sessions related to regulated breathing, two
sessions dealing with desensitization, and one session that focused on structuring
cognitive thinking to be more positive. Results indicated no significant changes between
different speech acts, such as, talking on the telephone, speaking to someone in person, or
public speaking. There were significant changes in the subjects' amount of stuttered
syllables. Due to treatment stuttering was reduced and the reduction in stuttering was
maintained in follow up studies.
Back to index
Langevin, M., & Boberg, E. (1996). Results of intensive stuttering
therapy with adults who clutter and stutter. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 21
(3/4), 315-327.
Criteria for evaluating the relative importance of cluttering and
stuttering symptoms appears to be a clinically useful tool in
identifying persons who clutter and stutter. This study presents
such criteria. Results of the study indicate a positive response of
cluttering-stuttering subjects to therapy, but greater gains may have
been made with additional therapy time and expanded therapy
goals. Pretreatment and posttreatment measures of articulatory rate
as a more sensitive measure of change for cluttering-stuttering
clients is also indicated.
Back to index
Langevin, M., Huinck, W.J., Kully, D., Peters, H.F.M., Lomheim, H., &
Tellers, M. (2006). A cross-cultural, long-term outcome
evaluation of the ISTAR comprehensive stuttering program
across Dutch and Canadian adults who stutter. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS, 31(4), 229-256.
The primary purpose of the investigation was to evaluate the
effectiveness of the ISTAR Comprehensive Stuttering Program (CSP)
at 2 years post-treatment within and across client groups from the
Netherlands and Canada and to evaluate the global treatment effect
across the groups. The secondary purpose was to examine any
observed differences and to consider whether they may be due to
cultural, methodological, or other factors. Participants in this study
were (a) 25 clients who were treated with the CSP in the Netherlands,
and (b) 16 clients treated with the CSP in Canada. The CSP evaluated
in this study was a 3-week intensive group therapy program for
adults who received 90 hours of therapy (6 hours per day). The
program consisted of three phases which included: acquisition of
fluency and cognitive behavioral skills (weeks 1&2), transfer (week
3), and maintenance (continued practice of skills in the months and
years following the 3-week intensive program). It was found that the
2 year post-treatment outcomes of the CSP in the Netherlands were
positive and similar to those of the Canadian Group. Results indicated
that there were no differences across the cultures in outcomes which
were measured by the following: stuttering frequency, speech
related attitudes, confidence, and perceptions of struggle, avoidance,
and expectancy to stutter. Two differences were noted between the
groups in speech rate and perception of self. It was reported that the
CSP appeared to be similarly effective in both cultures.
Back to index
Langevin, M. & Kully, D. (2003). Evidence-based treatment of stuttering: III. Evidence-
based practice in a clinical
setting. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 28, 219-236.
This article addresses the probability that evidence-based practice can be carried out in
the clinical setting. The article went through the process of collecting data on treatment
programs for teens, adults, and school-age children. Data was collected pre-treatment,
post-treatment, and follow-up. Methods of data collection were percentage syllable
stuttered, syllable spoken per minute, naturalness ratings, severity ratings, and attitude
and perception inventories. The process of evaluation data for clinical and research
purpose was shown through a case example. The authors conclude by saying they
believe that evidence-based practice can be carried out daily in most clinical settings, with
some needing assistance from researchers.
Back to index
Langlois, A., & Long, S.H. (1988). A model for teaching parents to
facilitate fluent speech. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 13, 163-
172.
The paper reports an indirect treatment for incipient stuttering
focusing on parental behavior. Rate, turn taking and utterance types
of the parent's conversational speech were analyzed. A teaching
program introduced mirroring, self-talk, parallel talk, reflecting,
expansion and speech pattern modification techniques.
Back to index
LaSalle, L. R. (1995) Dysfluency clusters of children who stutter:
Relation
of stutterings to self-repairs. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 38(5). 965-977.
Speech dysfluency clusters in sixty 3 to 6 year-old children, half of
whom stutter, is studied resulting in the following information:
children who stutter exhibited significantly more "stuttering-
stuttering," as well as "stuttering-repair" of clusters, while children
who are considered nonstutterers were less likely to stutter and
repair their disfluencies with stutters.
Back to index
LaSalle, RL., & Conture, EG. (1995). Disfluency clusters of children
who stutter: Relation of stutterings to self-repairs. JOURNAL OF
SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, 38, 965-977.
The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency, type,
and possible origins of speech dysfluency clusters in the spontaneous
speech of 3-6 year old children. The subjects consisted of 30
children who stutter and 30 who do not stutter. Three types of
speech dysfluencies were analyzed; overt self-repairs, covert self-
repairs, and within-word dysfluencies, and the dysfluency clusters
they compromised. The results indicate that children who stutter
produce significantly more stuttering clusters and stuttering repair
clusters.
Back to index
Lass, NJ., Ruscello, DM., Pannbacker, MD., Schmitt, JF., & Everly-
Myers, DS. (1989). Speech-Language Pathologists' Perceptions
of Child and Adult Female and Male Stutterers. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS, 14, 127-133.
A questionnaire was given to speech-language pathologists and
were asked to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers.
The research was done to determine the overall perception speech
clinicians have about people who stutter. Personality characteristics
were the most common descriptors and most of the characteristics
listed by the speech-language pathologists were negative stereotypes.
These findings may impact the development and possibly the onset of
the stuttering problems. The results reflect a possible need in making
clinicians aware of their attitudinal beliefs concerning stuttering. This
assessment of beliefs needs occur to prevent these biases from
interfering with stuttering therapy.
Back to index
Lass, N.J., Ruscello, D.M., Schmitt, J.F., Pannbacker, M.D., Orlando,
M.B., Dean, K.A., Ruziska, J.C., & Bradshaw, K.H. (1992).
Teachers' perceptions of stutterers. LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND
HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS, 23, 78-81.
A questionnaire asking 103 elementary and secondary teachers to
list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers (a typical 8
year old female, 8 yr. old male, adult female and adult male
stutterers). The majority of the reported adjectives were negative
stereotypical personality traits, indicating perceptions of
stutterers similar to other groups, including speech-language
pathologists, special educators, parents, college students, and
professors. Pre-service and continuing education programs were
suggested to prevent an adverse effect on the assessment,
instruction, and educational progress of stutterers in the teacher's
classes.
Back to index
Lattermann, C., Shenker, R. C., & Thordardottir, E. (2005).
Progression of language complexity during treatment with the
Lidcombe Program for early stuttering intervention.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 14,
242-253.
The purpose of this article was to determine if fluency was
achieved through the Lidcombe Program because of a reduction of
linguistic complexity. Four male preschool children who stuttered
participated in the study. Language samples were taken prior to
therapy, during therapy, and 6 months after completing the program.
The samples were analyzed for mean length of utterance (MLU),
number of different words (NDW), amount of sentences containing
complex syntax, and percent of syllables stuttered. Results of the
study indicated all of the children decreased the severity of their
stuttering, MLU was age appropriate, demonstrated an increase in
syntactic complexity, and NDW remained consistent. Overall, the
data suggests these preschool children did not have a reduction in
linguistic complexity while increasing their fluency.
Back to index
Leahy, M. M. (2004). Therapy Talk: Analyzing therapeutic
discourse. LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN
SCHOOLS, 35, 70-81.
This article discusses the importance of clinicians getting away
from traditional discourse with clients; where the clinician asks a
question, the client answers, and the clinician evaluates the response
and asks another question. The author suggested clinicians should
begin attending more to the roles the client and clinician traditionally
fall into; clinician in the authority role and client in the error-maker
role. Leahy recommends limiting the use of the words such as we, I,
OK, and now. These words put the clinician in an authority role and
may limit the verbal exchange between clinician and client.
Qualitative research methods for analyzing therapeutic discourse
related to stuttering are discussed (i.e. ethnography of
communication, conversational analysis, and framing in discourse).
Leahy provides a fluency case study of a discourse analysis. The
author found that the clinician in the case study was listening more
to how the client was speaking than the words the client was
speaking. Overall, Leahy suggests that roles need to be flexible in
therapy, especially with individuals who stutter. These individuals
need to develop a sense of being a competent speaker and not feel as
though there speech is constantly full of errors.
Back to index
Leahy, M.M. (2005). Changing perspectives for practice in stuttering:
Echoes from a Celtic past, when wordlessness was entitled to
time. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY,
14, 274-283.
This article viewed the changing perspectives for practice in
stuttering therapy by outlining the evolution of The International
Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF; World Health
Organization, 2001) which has a sociological emphasis with a focus on
the ability and functioning of the person. The evolution of the ICF
was outlined by moving from an impairment-based focus to a more
sociological perspective. A view of speech disability in an ancient
Irish society was described with tales from Irish folklore, where the
central theme was that stuttering did not affect society's recognition
of an individual's general ability and talent. This view differed from
the impairment-based focus that has been the heritage of the speech-
language pathology profession in the 20th century. The review of
changing perspectives showed the dominance of the impairment-
based medical model in speech-language pathology and how it was
used to structure therapy for stuttering in the development of the
profession during the 20th century. It was reported that the revision
of the ICF broadened the scope of the previous classification system
(emphasizing impairment as the source of disability and handicap)
and included concepts of health, activities, and participation. It was
also reported that the broad social perspectives of an ancient Celtic
society are echoed in the principles of the ICF.
Back to index
Lebrun, Y. (1996). Cluttering after brain damage. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS, 21 (3/4), 289-295.
Acquired cluttering after brain damage in adults is suggested
based on observations made in two patients and on published cases.
Hypotheses are made regarding the patho-physiology of the disorder
and the importance of auditory feedback in the regulation of speech
rate.
Back to index
Lebrun, Yvan (1998). Clinical Observations and Experimental Research in The
Study of Stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 2, 119-122.
This article is a reaction to a previous paper in the same journal by
Mowrer. The author focuses on a portion of that paper in which a mother claims
her son's stuttering began suddenly on February 28, 1992. The mother, and
other observers, noted eye blinks and head jerks and other involuntary
movements in the boy, believed to be the result of struggle during the
stuttering. The writer concludes, these associated movements are more likely the
result of extrapyramidal disease. The paper concludes that while experimental
research contributes statistical data for efficacy in the treatment of stuttering, it
cannot be used in substitution for clinical observation.
Back to index
Leder, S.B. (1996). Adult onset of stuttering as a presenting sign in a
parkinsonian-like syndrome: A case study. JOURNAL OF
COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, 29(6): p471-478.
This case study describes a 29-year-old white male who began
stuttering as a result of psychological stress. The man's stuttering
was diagnosed as severe and a description of the man's speech
characteristics are provided. An Interesting feature reported on the
subjects speech was that no starters or secondary characteristics, no
specific word fears or avoidances, and no situational fears were
exhibited. A neurological exam done on the subject found a resting
tremor in the hands and legs as well as lingual fasciculations, gait
imbalance, and numbness and tingling of the hands and feet. All the
symptoms found by the neurological exam were progressive in
nature. An outline of the subjects rehabilitation plan is given along
with a description of the medical intervention that was implemented.
This case study shows how important it is for the clinicians to
consider the possibility of a neurological disease as a possible
etiology for patients with adult onset of stuttering.
Back to index
Lees, R.M. (1988). The effect of foreperiod length on the acoustic
voice reaction times of stutterers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 13, 157-162.
The purpose of the study was to compare the voice reaction times
of stutterers and nonstutterers to investigate the phonatory behavior
of people who stutter. Six stutterers and six nonstutterers were
subjects. The response to the offset of a stimulus tone was
measured. The length of the tone and preparatory period were
controlled. Results state stutterers were slower at all tone directions,
but failed to reach statistical significance.
Back to index
Lees, R., Anderson, H., & Martin, P. (1999). The influence of language disorder
on fluency: a pilot study. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 24, 227-238.
This was a pilot study done on the influence of language disorders on
fluency. The basis for the study is the fact that young, normally developing
children experience a period of dysfluency during language growth. It was
hypothesized that if a child is having difficulty with language, it could lead to an
increase in dysfluency. There were 16 children that participated in the study
who were divided into four groups: children receiving speech and language
treatment, children receiving stuttering treatment (divided into 2 age groups),
and children with no fluency problems. The results were examined in a variety
of ways: language impaired vs. non-language impaired, stuttering vs.
nonstuttering, and modeling vs. imitation. The results showed a clear pattern of
non-relationship between dysfluency and language impairment.
Back to index
Lees, R.M., Boyle, B.E., and Woolfson, L. (1996). Is cluttering a motor
disorder? JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS 21, 281-287.
Because of the inadequate definition of cluttering certain problems
exist and are discussed in this article. It goes on to suggest the
importance of assessing speech rate and other aspects of motor
speech. This article discusses the results of tests done with a 15 year
old male who was assessed for a fluency disorder not though of as
stuttering.
Back to index
Levine, S. Z., Pertrides, K. V., Davis, S., Jackson, C. J., & Howell, P.
(2005). The use of structural equation modeling in stuttering
research: Concepts and directions. STAMMERING RESEARCH,
1(4). http://www.stamres.psychol.ucl.ac.uk
This article discusses the use of an analytical data technique
known as Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and how it is used/will
be used within the field of stuttering. SEM is described as being a
broad range of procedures which assist in factor analysis, time
growth analysis, multi-level latent modeling, and simultaneous
equation modeling. The strengths of SEM includes: permitting
statistical analyses accounting for measurement of error, providing a
rigorous approach to model testing, flexibility, accommodating to
tests of mediation and moderation, and permitting for statistical
testing of theoretical models. The article discusses in detail new
possibilities that SEM offers which includes analysis for stuttering
data. From the implications of this article, SEM offers researchers a
new way to approach hypothesis testing by replacing conventional
data analysis techniques, more comprehensive theoretical
statements, and providing a way for researchers to study the
developmental pathways of stuttering.
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c
Lewis, K. (1991). The structure of disfluency behaviors in the
speech of adult stutterers. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 34, 492-500.
Videotaped monologues of 139 males and 41 females made up the
subject sample in the current study. Subject files were taken from
five university speech clinics, and one private practice clinic. For
each subject, all instances of the nine disfluency types were marked
and totaled. The interrelationships observed among the nine
disfluency types indicated that the idea of a twofold classification
of stuttering behavior has some merit.
Back to index
Lewis, K.E. (1994). Reporting Observer Agreement on Stuttering
Event Judgments: A Survey and Evaluation of Current Practice.
JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, v19, n4, Dec.
This article discusses finding agreement of people observing and
how it is valid or nonvalid in three national journals dating from
November 1988 to September 1992. Five common agreement
procedures, which account for 92% of the articles, include:
Sander's Agreement Index, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation r,
Mean difference Scores, Tests of Deviation from known Distributions,
and Percentage Agreement. The author discusses problems with
these five agreement procedures and suggests some alternative
procedures such as: Occurrence Agreement and Chance Occurrence
Agreement, Scott's Pi, and Kappa.
Back to index
Lewis, K. (1995). Do SSI-3 scores accurately reflect observations of
stuttering behaviors? AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-
LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 4(4) 46-59.
The purpose of this investigation was to answer the question, "Do
scores obtained on the Stuttering Severity Instruments for Children
and Adults accurately reflect observations of stuttering behaviors?"
The results from this study indicate they do not. These findings
indicate a considerable range of stuttering behaviors underlie a given
SSI-3 severity level score. It is clear that clinicians and researchers
have a need for instruments that provide valid and reliable
measures of numerous aspects of stuttering. However, the present
data indicates that need is not met by the SSI-3. For the many
reasons addressed in this article, continued use of the SSI-3 is not
supported.
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Lewis, K.E., Harrison, N., & Haring, M. (1998). Toward a mentoring model for
fluency specialty recognition. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 23, 59-71.
Special Interest Division for Fluency and Fluency Disorders (SID-4) is
ASHA's first specialty recognition program. The purpose of this article was to
work at developing steps towards a mentoring relationship which all
professionals in different stages of their careers could utilize for SID-4.
Members of SID-4 participated in this study and worked towards giving a
desirability rating to multiple areas/ functions studied. The authors developed
two main phases of functions- adjusting and development. The results of this
study give further direction towards implementing mentoring models for
specialty recognition programs in the future.
Back to index
Liles, B.Z., Lerman, J., Christensen, L., & St. Ledger, J. (1992).
A case description of verbal and signed disfluencies of a 10 year
old boy who is retarded. LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING
SERVICES IN SCHOOLS, 23, 107-112.
Disfluencies in the verbal and signed language of a 10 year old
moderately mentally retarded boy were analyzed from video
samples of spontaneous communication and structured language
lessons. The boy had normal hearing with speech and language
commensurate to his mental age. The subject was observed to be
disfluent in verbal communication and in verbal and manual
communication produced simultaneously. Repetitions, prolongations,
and blockages were described as occurring at the time across
communicative modes during the use of total communication.
Accurate characterization of stuttering in manual communication and
the appropriate approaches to management were discussed.
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Lincoln, M., & Onslow, M. (1997). Long-term outcome of early
intervention for stuttering. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-
LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 1, 51- 58.
This paper reports on the long-term outcome of treatment from
two previous studies that evaluated the effect of a parent-
administered, operant, nonprogrammed stuttering treatment on their
children. This study provides outcome data on the children at 2 and
7 years post-treatment. Results indicate near-zero stuttering levels
achieved post-treatment and maintained in the long term. These
findings indicate that preschool-age children treated for stuttering
may not need to re-enter treatment for up to 7 years after their
initial treatment.
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Lindsay, J., (1989). Relationship of Developmental Disfluency and
Episodes of Stuttering to the Emergence of Cognitive Stages in
Children. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 14, 271-284.
This article explores the relationship between cognition,
language and fluency in an attempt to find answers for the diagnosis
and treatment of stuttering and if stuttering is associated with
developmental stages. Piagetıs stages were investigated as well as
the stages of stuttering and normal dysfluencies. The hesitation
phenomenon was discussed and it was found that there is a
relationship between fluency and cognitive complexity. Overall,
findings that relate stuttering to the emergence of new cognitive
stages in children need to be further studied.
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Lincoln, M., Onslow, M., Lewis, C., & Wilson, L. (1996). A clinical
operant treatment for school-age children who stutter. AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 2, 73 - 85.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a
nonprogrammed, operant treatment for school-age children who
stutter. Treatment was administered by clinicians and parents to 11
children between the ages of 7 and 12 years. After treatment the
children's speech was assessed in three everyday speaking situations
over a 12-month post-treatment period. Results found that all
children maintained decreased stuttering rates at 12 months post-
treatment. Parents were all "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their
children's speech post-treatment.
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Lincoln, M.A., Onslow, M., & Reed, V. (1997). Social validity of the
treatment outcomes of an early intervention program for
stuttering. AMERICAN SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 6, 77-84.
The focus of this study contained two parts of social validity of the
Lidcome program (a procedure based on response contingent
stimulation(RCS). The first part of the investigation focused on a
comparison of the percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) in children
who stuttered and children who did not. The 2nd part of the
investigation focused on judgments made by experienced clinicians
and unsophisticated listeners to the speech of the same children.
Results indicate that the treatment outcome of the Lidcome program
appears to be socially valid.
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Logan, K.J. (2001). The effect of Syntactic Complexity Upon the
Speech Fluency of Adolescents and Adults Who Stutter. JOURNAL
OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 26:2, 85-106.
Previous research indicated that in young children, syntactic
complexity affects stuttering. The present study tried to answer 3
questions. (1) Do adolescent and adult speakers stutter more often
in syntactical complex utterances than they do in syntactically simple
utterances? (2) Does the extent of any such syntactic effect vary
with speaking context? (3) Do adolescent and adults who stutter
produce syntactically complex sentences at a different speaking rate
than syntactically simple sentences?
The study involved 12 adolescent and adult stutterers, with mean
age being 23, who interacted for about 15 to 20 minutes with a
research assistant who was blinded to the purpose of the study. The
conversation was structured around a list of open-ended requests
pertaining to the participants communication skills, hobbies,
career/schooling, and also, a prepared sentences within a reaction
time task was given. The finding were: (1) There was no difference
in the number of clauses or syntactic constituents per utterance in
the analysis of length-matched stuttered and fluent conversational
utterances. (2) There appeared to be no difference in dysfluency
rates across the for levels of syntactic complexity associated with the
tasks in the analysis of prepared sentences. (3) There was no
support that no type of syntactic structure affects the speech fluency
of adolescents and adults more than any other type of syntactical
structure. (4) The speakers articulated syntactically complex
sentences more rapidly than simple sentences in the prepared
sentence tasks. (5) Seemed to be less stuttering frequency during
prepared sentences that during length-matched conversational
utterances.
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Logan, K.J. (2003). The effect of syntactic structure upon speech initiation times of
stuttering and nonstuttering speakers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS,
28, 17-35.
The purpose of this study was to determine how syntactic structure of a
sentence affects the rate of initiation of speech in people who stutter and
people who do not stutter. The stimuli used in this investigation were adapted
from those used in a similar study by Ferreira (1991). Participants in this study
included 11 people who stutter and 11 people who do not stutter. Subjects' ages
ranged from adolescent to early adult. Subjects who stuttered had done so since
early childhood and ranged from mild to severe. After reviewing various versions
of 96 target sentences, subjects were to repeat the sentences when given auditory
and visual cues from a computer. The sentences appeared on the screen and
subjects were instructed to begin speaking them as soon as possible after the
stimulus. Results revealed that 10 of 11 people who stuttered had speech initiation
times longer than the group mean for people who did not stutter. Additionally,
7 of 10 people who stuttered had an overall speech initiation time that was greater
than one standard deviation above the mean for the group of people who do not
stutter. Overall the results did not support the idea that a speaker's speech
initiation time was affected by the syntactic complexity of a sentence. It was
indicated that slowness in motor planning might not necessarily be present in
stuttered speech.
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Logan, K. J. (2003). Language and fluency characteristics of preschoolers' multiple-
utterance conversational turns.
JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 46, 178-188.
The purpose of this research study was to examine the effect of conversational turn
length on preschoolers' speech fluency and length and complexity of the utterances they
produce, as well as to determine whether conversational turns of children who do stutter
differ from those of children who do not stutter in their complexity or pragmatic function.
The study included 15 3- and 4-year-old children who stutter and 15 age- and gender-
matched children who do not stutter. Data collection for the study was achieved through
a 15-minute parent-child interaction, conducted in a play setting. Results of the study
indicated that there were not significant differences between the 2 groups of children.
Back to index
Logan, K. J. & Conture, E.G. (1995). Length, grammatical complexity,
and rate differences in stuttered utterances of children who
stutter. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 20(1). 35-62..
Length, grammatical complexity, and articulatory rate are used to
assess differences in stuttered and perceptibly fluent conversational
utterances produced by children who stutter, resulting in the fol-
lowing: syllabic rate for stuttered utterances is significantly greater
than perceptibly fluent utterances, length and/or grammatical
complexity are significantly greater for stuttered utterances than for
perceptibly fluent utterances, and perceptibly fluent utterances are
considered to be low in length and/or grammatical complexity.
Articulatory rate is said to have no influence on utterances, whether
stuttered or perceptibly fluent.
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Logan, Kenneth J., LaSalle, Lisa R. (2003). Developing intervention programs for children
with stuttering and
concomitant impairments. SEMINARS IN SPEECH AND LANGUAGE, 24, 13-19.
Children who stutter often present with concomitant impairments that creates difficulty
in the treatment process. In a recent survey of speech language pathologists, results
revealed that more than 40% of children who stutter also meet state eligibility
requirements for phonological and language impairment. The article summarized four
priorities that should be addressed in the initial assessment. It also provides clinicians
with potential treatment models, treatment principles and treatment strategies for children
who stutter. There are suggestions for parents and teachers regarding the intervention
plan.
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Logan, K., Morey, M., Pretto, A., & Roberts, R. (2002). Speaking slowly: effects of
four self-guided training approaches on adultsı speech rate and naturalness.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 2, 163-174.
Speech-language pathologists often ask the parents of children who stutter to
reduce their rate of speech when talking with their children. Little is known about
how to help parents do this, or how much this affects the childıs resulting speech. In
this article two experiments were done to examine this issue. In experiment 1 adult
females altered their speech rate with one of the four self-guided methods. Speech
rates post therapy was slower in all the experimental groups compared to the control
group. The extent of rate reduction varied across all, and the speakers rated their
speech as unnatural. In the second experiment 39 females rated the naturalness of
sentences from the groups in experiment 1. Across the board, the slower a speakerıs
post training rate, the less natural it sounded to its speakers. Results suggested that
adults can readily slow their speech using self-devised methods, and that speaker
perceptions of speech naturalness may differ, and this must be considered in training.
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Logan, K., & Yaruss, J. (2002). Evaluating rate, accuracy, and fluency of young
childrenıs diadochokinetic productions: a preliminary investigation. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS, 1, 65-86.
Diadochokinetic rates are commonly used to assess children who possesı speech
and language disorders, even though it is not clearly known how to apply the results
of this measure. The study in this article explored the possibility of the accuracy and
fluency of the DDK rates as being more reliable measures than just a rate number.
Through the study of 15 boys between the ages of 3 and 7, analysis revealed and
errors and disfluencies did not affect the DDK rate, suggesting that this may be an
insensitive measure of childrenıs speaking abilities. Findings suggested that DDK
accuracy and fluency may provide information on a childıs speech development more
closely related to oral motor development than rate. It is suggested that rate measures
be supplemented with the measurements of accuracy and fluency when evaluating a
childıs speaking abilities.
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Loucks, T., De Nil, Luc, & Sasisekaran, J. (2007). Jaw-phonatory
coordination in chronic developmental stuttering. JOURNAL OF
COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, 40, 257-272.
This journal article examines if jaw-phonatory coordination in
Adults Who Stutter (AWS) showed less accuracy and more variability
than adults with normal speech fluency to determine if a deficiency
in sensorimotor integration is a factor of developmental stuttering.
Specific measures consisting of total variability (TV), variable error,
peak velocity and movement time were examined. Subjects included
11 right handed men who stutter and 11 right handed men who did
not stutter (control group). Results indicated that the AWS group
showed greater error in jaw-phonatory coordination in comparison to
the control group.
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Louko, LJ. (1995). Phonological characteristics of young children
who stutter. TOPICS IN LANGUAGE DISORDERS, 15 (3), 48-59.
This article reviews the research exploring the co-occurence of
disordered phonology and stuttering in children. There is a general
consensus in the research that children who stutter are more likely
to exhibit speech sound disorders when compared with children who
do not stutter. A review of studies focusing on the speech sound
errors and/or phonological processes of children who stutter was also
included in the article. These studies provide information about the
type of errors/processes exhibited by children who stutter. This
article also discusses therapy issues and provides suggestions for the
treatment of phonological problems that co-occur with stuttering.
Back to index
Lubinski, R., Pollack, J., Weitzner-Lin, B. (1986). A pragmatic study of child
dysfluency. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 11, 231-239.
The purpose of the case study was to examine the conversational breakdown in a
mother and child interaction. Conversational breakdowns, repairs, and resolutions were
examined between a 3 year old female and her mother. The girl displayed hard contacts,
repetitions of words and phrases, and secondary behaviors. The examiners videotaped
the interactions, book reading, telling time, tracing numbers, and writing, for 20 minutes.
The results indicated that 37 breakdowns, 47 repairs, 37 resolutions occurred within the
20 minutes of interaction. The study helped professionals identify the conditions in
which people who stutter may display an increase in dysfluencies.
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Ludlow, C.L., & Braun, A. (1993). Research evaluating the use of
neuropharmacological agents for treating stuttering: Possibilities
and problems. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 18, 169-182.
This article reviews and discusses the findings of twenty-two
neuropharmacologic studies. A description is given as to what types
of agents were used in each of the studies. The authors describe in
detail the common findings in each study. The authors found after
reviewing all twenty-two studies that 65% of the stutterers had a
significant positive response to treatment. At the end of the article
the authors provide some recommendations for the development and
evaluation of neuropharmacological approaches to the management
of stuttering.
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Ludlow, C. L., & Loucks, T. (2003). Stuttering: a dynamic motor control
disorder. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 28, 273-295.
The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of the fundamental
mechanisms that are involved in stuttering and to determine which neural
mechanisms may be dysfunctional. Since speech is a rapid motor control
task, they looked at the rapid inter-relationships between neural events prior
to and during speech gestures and stuttering interruptions in different
regions of the brain through Magnetoencephalography (MEG). They also
looked at the location of the brain injury and found that the location and the
type of lesion can cause acquired stuttering. Results indicate that lesions that
appear on structures that are involved with rapid communication between
brain regions such as the corpus cal! losum, the basal ganglia and the
thalamus might be related to acquired stuttering. The final area this study
discussed was the similarity and differences between stuttering and other
speech motor control disorders. They looked at sensory deviations, muscle
interference, central abnormalities, basal ganglia abnormalities, and
vulnerable systems in people who stutter and as compared to individuals
with dysotonias, spasmodic dysphonia, and Tourettes syndrome.
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Lutz, K.C. & Mallard, A.R. (1986). Disfluencies and rate of speech in young adult
nonstutterers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 11, 307-316.
The authors use the Precision Fluency Shaping Program with young adults who stutter
and hope to be able to compare the young adult's post-therapy disfluencies with the
disfluencies of young adults who do not stutter. Normative data was gathered in this
study in order to make that comparison. Fifty students completed the study by
answering ten questions and reading the first paragraph of the Rainbow Passage. Every
subject had some disfluencies during conversational speech while only 68% of the
subjects had disfluencies while reading. The data obtained from the study will allow
clinicians to objectively analyze the disfluencies of young adults' post-therapy speech.
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Mackey, L. S., Finn, P., & Ingham, R. J. (1997). Effect of speech dialect
on speech naturalness ratings: A Systematic replication of Martin,
Haroldson, and Triden (1984). JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 40, 349-360.
This study investigated the effect of dialect on listeners' speech
naturalness ratings using three groups of speaker samples. Two
groups had General American Dialect ñ one with persons who stutter
and one with persons who do not stutter. The third group consisted
of speakers who do not stutter, but spoke non-General American
dialect. Undergraduate speech and hearing students made
judgments from a one-minute speech sample regarding the speech
rate, frequency of stuttering, frequency of normal disfluencies, and
speech naturalness. The findings were consistent with previous
research that listeners' naturalness ratings differed between each
group, with stutterers judged as least natural sounding, non-
stutterers judged as most natural sounding, and non-stutterers with
non-general dialect in between. Implications for evaluating
stuttering treatment were discussed.
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MacKinnon, S. P., Hall, S., & Macintyre, P. D. (2007). Origins of the
stuttering stereotype: Stereotype formation through anchoring-
adjustment. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 32, 297-309.
Stereotypes of people who stutter have been well documented.
School teachers, parents, community members and even SLPıs have
been found to associate negative personality trait stereotypes such as
shyness, insecurity, avoidance, hesitance and nervousness with
people who stutter. The current study examines how these
stereotypes are formed. Testing the anchoring and adjustment theory
of stereotype formation this study investigates how 183 psychology
students relate to 3 hypothetical males. The first male is presented
as a trait stutterer, the second as a normally fluent adult who has a
brief episode of disfluency and regains fluent speech (state
stutterer), the third speaker a normally fluent adult man.
Participants are asked to rate these hypothetical people on 25
different personality scales. Results supported the anchoring and
adjustment theory of developing personality stereotypes.
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McKinnon, D.H., McLeod, S., and Reilly, S. (2007). The prevalence of
stuttering, voice, and speech-sound disorders in primary school
students in Australia. LANGUAGE SPEECH AND HEARING
SERVICES IN SCHOOLS, 38, 5-15.
This Australian study examined the prevalence of
communication disorders in 10,425 primary school students. The
study examined stuttering, voice disorders and speech-sound
disorders in relation to gender, grade-level (K-6), and socio-economic
status along with other factors including teacher perceptions of
students' required level of support vs. learning support provided to
students, curriculum adaptation, IEP and the involvement of outside
agencies. The study found significant differences in prevalence by
gender and grade, but no differences across disorders or
socioeconomic groups (SEGs), although students in higher SEGs were
more likely to be diagnosed. Results indicate that 1.51% of primary
schools children have a communication disorder and that over half of
them were not receiving necessary services of classroom
accommodations. Results may not translate directly to other
countries due to structural differences in school systems and
treatment delivery systems for communication disorders.
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MacLeod, J., Kalinowski, J., Stuart, A. & Armson, J., (1995). Effect of
single and combined altered auditory feedback on stuttering
frequency at two speech rates. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION
DISORDERS, 28, 217-228.
Based on previous studies that indicate fluency improves under
altered auditory feedback conditions, this study investigated the
additive effects of combining delayed auditory feedback (DAF) with
frequency altered feedback (FAF). It also investigated the
hypothesis that altered feedback improves fluency by slowing down
the rate of speech. Ten adult subjects read eight different passages
of 300+ words under conditions of nonaltered feedback (NAF), DAF,
FAF, and combined DAF and FAF at both slow and fast rates of
speech. The results found that fluency substantially improved under
all altered conditions, but that the combination of DAF and FAF did
not lead to more fluency than did each condition alone. The authors
suggest that this lack of additive effect could be the result of a floor
effect where the DAF or FAF alone created such fluency that there
was no room for improvement in the combined condition. Future
studies could alleviate this situation by testing subjects with more
severe stuttering or decreasing the effects of the altered feedback. It
was also found that fluency was improved at both fast and slow rates
of speech, refuting the claim that altered feedback improves fluency
by slowing rate of speech. Recommendations for therapeutic
strategies based on these findings are provided.
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Mahr, G., & Leith, W. (1992). Psychogenic stuttering of adult
onset. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, 35, 283-
286.
The key characteristics of psychogenic stuttering of adult onset
were reviewed and four cases of this disorder were presented. The
four cases described represented conversation reactions. Criteria or
elements available for the diagnosis of stuttering as a conversation
reaction were presented.
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Mahr, G. & Torosian, T. (1999). Anxiety and social phobia in stuttering.
JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 24, 119-126.
This study focuses on comparing the symptoms of anxiety among 22
stutterers to social phobics and nonpatient controls. If a substantial relationship
is seen between social phobia and stuttering, then therapeutic interventions that
have been useful in treating social phobia could also aid in treating stuttering.
Measures included the experience of distress in social situations and the
avoidance of social situations; fear and avoidance of being negatively evaluated
by others; general anxiety; and specific fears including agoraphobia, social
phobia, and the participants own primary fear. Results indicated that the group
of stutterers did not show symptoms of social phobia although they do have
avoidance behaviors that are related to their own fear of stuttering.
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Mallard, A.R. (1998). Encouraging a Broader Perspective in Judging the
Effectiveness of Stuttering Therapy. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 2, 1
23-125.
The article addresses Mallard's perspective of a family based fluency
program for children. The paper is a precursor to a study done by Mallard,
published in the same journal issue. He refutes "scientific method studies" saying
they have done little to solve the daily problems encountered by those who
stutter. He believes in a family bases therapy program and emulates an
approach, using family management procedures for dealing with stuttering, by
Rustin for his study.
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Mallard, A. R. (1998). Using Problem-Solving Procedures in Family Management
of Stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 2, 127-135.
The study provides results from an program at Southwest Texas State
University modeled after therapy described by Rustin, which emphasizes social
skill training, and parental involvement, for children who stutter. Twenty-eight
families participated in the program. The focus was never on the frequency of
words stuttered but rather teaching the child, and their families, to manage their
stuttering. A combination of fluency shaping, stuttering modification and other
practices based on the needs of the client were used with the groups. A year
later, follow up interviews were performed and found 23 of the children were
no longer enrolled in any type of therapy. That is not to say they no longer
stuttered but that 82% of the children and their families were managing their
stuttering and did not require further assistance.
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Mallard, AR., Gardner, LS., & Downey, CS. (1988). Clinical training in
stuttering for school clinicians. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS,
13, 243-259.
A survey was developed to determine the educational and clinical
backgrounds of speech-language pathologists working in school
setting. Research points to that the academic and clinical training of
speech-language pathologists are insufficient to prepare
professionals to work with stutters. The results from the survey
indicate a high percentage of clinicians working in school settings
seem to have neither the academic or clinical experience in stuttering
that prepare them to be accountable with fluency disorders.
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Mallard, AR & Westbrook, JB (1988) Variables Affecting Stuttering Therapy in
School Settings. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 19, 362-370
A two year project within two school districts in San Antonio, Texas was designed
to document the variables that affect stuttering therapy in the school. The
participating schools had a traditional, itinerant schedule. The two school districts used
serviced different populations, one was an urban setting while the other was suburban.
Two therapy programs were used. The first year the therapy presented by Van Riper
(1973) was used. The second year the therapy program was the Monterey Fluency
Program. Results indicate that stuttering children may need more assistance than can
be provided by two therapy periods a week of 30-45 minutes duration.
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Manning, W. (2004). "How can you understand? You don't stutter! ".
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCE AND
DISORDERS, 31, 58-68.
Manning talks about how many clinicians who work with people who
stutter do not have enough experience or education. He believes that a
clinician can be a good and effective clinician for a person who stutters
even if he or she has never stuttered before. Manning's article provides
suggestions as to how to be a good and effective clinician, and gives
clinicians ways to respond when a clients says, "You don't stutter so you
don't understand! " Some of Manning's suggestions include: listening
closely to the client and their stuttering, listening to the client's nonstuttered
speech, doing activities outside of the therapy room and attending self-help
meetings. However, the key point of this whole article is that not everyone
is going to understand, but if a clinician has the basic clinical skills, is
desensitized to and unafraid of stuttering, he or she is capable of being a
good clinician for people who stutter.
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Manders, E., and Bastijns, P. (1989). Sudden recovery from stuttering
after an epileptic attack: a case report. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 13, 421-428.
This is a case report about a little boy with myolomeningocele,
complicated with hydrocephalus. At the age of two, he was seen at
the University Speech and Hearing Rehabilitation Center in Belgium
because of language retardation. The parents were offered advice
concerning language stimulation at home a periodical follow-up was
scheduled. He caught up to his language delay when he was 4 years,
6 months of age. When the little boy was 5, his mother contacted the
clinic and stated that his son has been stuttering since his fifth
birthday. Following an evaluation of his speech, an abnormal
disfluency was evident. Parents were given advice and an
appointment for three months later was scheduled. At the three-
month appointment, mother shared that her son had a short, focal
epileptic attack and immediately after this seizure, the stuttering
had completely disappeared. The reevaluation indicated no
disfluencies, normal speech, and his language remained at a high
level.
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Mansson, H. (2000). Childhood stuttering: incidence and
development. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 25, 47-57.
This article reviews the results of a study on the incidence and
development of early childhood stuttering in which the entire
population of children born within a 2-year period in Bornholm was
surveyed. The results of the study indicated that the incidence of
stuttering among this group reached a level of 5.19%. Regarding the
development of stuttering among these children, it was reported that
71.40% of their stuttering ceased after two years following the initial
survey and more children continued to stop stuttering after that
evaluation. Factors such as age of onset, character of onset, and
stuttering severity were taken into consideration.
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Marshall, C. (2005). The impact of word-end phonology and
morphology on stuttering. STAMMERING RESEARCH, 1(4), 375-
391. http://www.stamres.psychol.ucl.ac.uk
This article describes a study conducted that analyzes
stuttering and its association with morphological and phonological
complex word endings. In study one, a specific set of materials were
presented to participants (stuttering adults/adolescents) by an
interviewer. After thorough analyses of responses, it was concluded
that stuttering rates in ordinary speech is not affected by ending
clusters in words. It was also found that morphological complexities
do not influence stuttering. Studies two and three were conducted
on children and young adults. Study two involved a non-word
repetition task and study three involved an elicitation task. Results
from these two studies showed that stuttering rates are not affected
by words ending in a morphological and phonological complexity in
most children and young adult participants. However, there was a
small amount of participants, during the elicitation task, who
stuttered on morphologically complex word-endings. Therefore,
word ending phonological complexities do not affect stuttering, but
morphological could affect some people who stutter.
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Marshall, R. C. & Neuburger, S. I. (1987). Effects of delayed auditory feedback on
acquired stuttering following head injury. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 12(5), 355-365.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether DAF could effectively reduce
stuttering behaviors in individuals exhibiting acquired stuttering. The subjects of this
study were three men who began to stutter following a head injury. Baseline
measures were obtained for the number of stuttering events and number of words
spoken per minute during a description of action pictures, a description of sequences
of action pictures, and narrative discourse. Treatment involved utilization of the DAF
for each of the preceding tasks. Focus was placed on one task while the remaining
tasks stayed at the baseline level. Results found that stuttering behaviors decreased
for each of the three subjects within each treatment task. This indicates that DAF
may be an effective tool for treatment of individuals with acquired stuttering.
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Martin, R. (1993). The future of behavior modification of stuttering:
What goes around comes around. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 18, 81-108.
The article begins by discussing various research pertaining to
the onset and modification of stuttering via operant conditioning.
The endeavors of research have been unsuccessful in explaining the
onset and development of stuttering. It has been suggested that
future operant analysis should focus on generalization and
maintenance because these are the most important issues to the
people who stutter and their everyday activities.
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Martin, RR. & Haroldson, SK. (1988). An experimental increase in stuttering
frequency. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, 31, 272-
274.
The purpose of this study was to look at the effect, if any, on stuttering after
speaking with an adult male conversationalist. In this study, 8 men and 2 woman,
with age ranges from 22 to 48 years, talked first for 10 minutes alone, then with an
adult conversationalist who started out by commenting or asking a question about
the topic the stutterer spoke of in the initial 10 minutes and then the
conversationalist spoke as little and consistent as possible, keeping the conversation
alive. Finally, the conversationalist male left the room, and the stutterer continued
to speak for 10 minutes. Results indicated that stuttering did increase in the
conversationalist situation, but decreased during the last 10 minutes as compared to
the baseline (initial 10 minutes).
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Martin, RR., Haroldson, SK., & Woessner, GL. (1988). Perceptual
scaling of stuttering severity. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS,
13, 27-47.
The article presents a review and an integration of research
concerning the perceptual scaling of stuttering severity. The results
of two experiments are reported. In Experiment I, observers judged
stuttering severity on a seven-point scale. The observers identified
each stuttering instance, judged the severity of each instance, and
judged stuttering severity of the overall speech sample. In
Experiment II, stutterers spoke normally and under DAF while an
observer judged "on-line" the severity of each instance of stuttering
on the same seven-point scale used in Experiment I. The results
were: 1) Observer reliability was satisfactory for scaling severity of
individual stuttering, overall speech samples, and instances of
stuttering severity "on-line". 2) Stuttering severity scale value for
the overall sample was higher than the mean scale value for
individual stuttered words within the sample. 3) A complex
relationship obtained between the measures of stuttering frequency,
severity, and other characteristics of the speech signal.
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Martin, R.R, & Haroldson, S.K. (1992). Stuttering and speech
naturalness: Audio and audiovisual judgments. JOURNAL OF
SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, 35, 521-528.
Recorded stutterer and nonstutterer speech samples were judged
by unsophisticated raters (using 9-point interval scales) for speech
naturalness and stuttering severity. The audio only and audiovisual
presentations were judged separately by the raters. The raters
judged the audiovisual presentation more unnatural than the audio
presentation of the same sample for the stutterer samples. For the
nonstutterer samples, there was no difference between the audio and
audiovisual naturalness ratings.
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Max, L., and Caruso, A. (1998). Adaption of Stuttering Frequency During
Repeated Readings: Associated Changes in Acoustic Parameters of
Perceptually Fluent Speech. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND
HEARING
RESEARCH, 41, 1265-1281.
This study investigates further the motor learning hypothesis of stuttering
adaptation. It also looks at a whether there is a relationship between stuttering
and the variability of certain acoustic parameters, especially vowel duration.
There were 8 subjects used in this study. The results of this study support the
hypothesis that stuttering adaptation may be a result of motor learning. The
study discusses the variability of acoustic parameters individually.
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Max, L., Caruso, A. J., & Gracco, V. L. (2003). Kinematic analysis of speech, orofacial
nonspeech, and finger
movements in stuttering and nonstuttering adults. JOURNAL OF SPEECH,
LANGUAGE, AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 46, 215-233.
The purpose of this research study was to investigate the question of whether or not
neuromotor differences between individuals who stutter and individuals who do not
stutter are limited to the movements involved in speech production. The study included
10 gender- and age-matched stuttering and nonstuttering adults. Kinematic data was
obtained as participants performed tasks involving speech movements, orofacial
nonspeech movements, and finger movements. Results of the study found significant
differences between stuttering and nonstuttering participants on measures of lip and jaw
closing movements during perceptually fluent speech. The study also found differences
in the finger movements of the two participating groups. These results indicate that the
neuromotor differences between stutterers and nonstutterers are not limited to speech
production movements.
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Max, L., Caruso, A.J., & Vandevenne, A. (1997). Decreased stuttering
frequency during repeated readings: A motor learning perspective.
JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 22, 17-33.
A study done by Frank and Bloodstein (1971) was reproduced and
extended. Ten subjects who stutter completed readings of a 300-
word passage under two conditions. The first condition included six
readings of a 300-word following an adaption procedure. The second
condition included ten readings of a different 300-word passage in
succession. The first five times in this condition the readings were
done together with the clinician and the second five readings were
done alone. This study indicated that stuttering frequency in the
sixth reading of both conditions is the result of subsequent readings
rather than repeated stuttering.no great difference in the sixth
readings of both conditions.
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Max, L., & Gracco, V. (2005). Coordination of oral and laryngeal
movements in the perceptually fluent speech of adults who
stutter. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 48, 524-542.
The study was designed to examine oral and laryngeal
movements in the perceptually fluent speech of people who stutter
and of people who do not stutter. The study was based on a modified
version of the oral-laryngeal discoordination hypothesis. Previous
studies on oral and laryngeal movement have found differences in
duration, but duration does not sufficiently indicate the speaker's
coordination of the oral and laryngeal mechanism. The results of the
study found the fluent speech of the stutterers was characterized by
a slower initiation of phonation rather than a deficit in the
coordination of the oral and laryngeal mechanism.
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Max, L. , Guenther, F. H. , Gracco, V. L. , Ghosh, S. S. , & Wallace, M.
E. (2004). Unstable or insufficiently activated internal models and
feedback-biased motor control as sources of dysfluency: A theoretical
model of stuttering. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN
COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND DISORDERS, 31, 105-122.
This article focused on neural processes and sensorimotor mechanisms that
could be involved in stuttering. This article reviewed a lot of literature and
it concluded with two hypothesis. One was that stuttering had to do with
"unstable or insufficiently activated internal models", which means that a
child may have problems achieving stable and correct pathways between the
motor and sensory portions of the brain. The second hypothesis was that
stuttering had to do with a "weak feedforward control and overreliance on
afferent feedback". The article reviewed topics such as speech movements,
nonspeech movements, and brain activation patterns.
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Max, L. & Yudman, E. M. (2003). Accuracy and variability of isochronous rhythmic
timing across motor systems
in stuttering versus nonstuttering individuals. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE,
AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 46, 146-163.
The purpose of this research study was to compare the abilities of adults who stutter
with those of adults who do not stutter in tasks of speech and nonspeech isochronous
rhythm timing. The study included 10 adults who stutter and 10 adults who do not
stutter. Administration of the experimental tasks included the completion of the
following isochronous rhythmic movements: orofacial structures for speech production
movements, orofacial structures for nonspeech movements, and index finger and thumb
movements. Results of the study indicated that stuttering and nonstuttering participants
showed highly similar level of both timing accuracy and timing variability.
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Max, L., & Yudman, E.M. (2004). Understanding stuttering will
require theoretical models that fit the data rather than attempts
to make the data fit the preferred models: A response to Howell
(2004). JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 47, 105-113.
The purpose of this letter was to defend previous research done
by the authors, which Howell (2004) disagreed with. Max and
Yudman (2004) addressed all of the issues Howell pointed out. They
discussed how Howell's arguments reflect a theoretical perspective on
stuttering that has little, or no, empirical evidence, he didn't
acknowledge studies that agreed with that of the authors,
experimental procedures were misrepresented, subjective judgments
were suggested instead of the objective experimental procedures
administered, and Howell misrepresented the statistical analysis and
conclusions. Max and Yudman (2004) did not believe they had
previously included or implied the conclusions Howell was against.
They, instead, stated that there is a need for further research, and
that scientific knowledge about stuttering must be based on
theoretical models that fit the data presented.
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McAllister, J., & Kingston, M. (2005). Final part-word repetitions in
school-age children: two case studies. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 30, 255-267.
This study examined final part-word repetitions in two healthy
7 year-old boys. Because final part-word repetitions are relatively
rare characteristics of a person who stutters, the authors were
interested in expanding the small body of literature concerning the
topic. Expressive and receptive language abilities were assessed to
ensure that the boys were both age appropriate. Each boy completed
two spontaneous speech samples, a reading aloud task, and a
sentence repetition task. Results indicated that both boys were at an
age appropriate level regarding their language skills. Results
indicated that both boys exhibited the majority of total disfluencies
during spontaneous speech, although some were recorded during the
other tasks. The boys did not appear aware of the disfluencies and
no secondary behaviors were observed for either child. Phonological
structures of each childıs final part-word repeated fragment were
predictable after analyzing the disfluencies.
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McClean, M. D. (1996). Lip-muscle reflexes during speech movement
preparation in stutterers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 21,
49-60
The premise behind this study is that neural processes underlying
speech initiation involve reduction in the excitability of sensory
input from mechanoreceptor that mediate speech movements. The
hypotheses is that this reduced excitability is not as great in
individuals who stutter. This was tested by analyzing lip-muscle
reflexes prior to speech initiation in people who stutter and
comparing this data to that of nonstutterers. Fourteen stutters and
nonstutterer's mechanically evoked reflex levels just prior to
productions of/p/ were studied. It was found that, as a group,
stutterers showed less lip-muscle reflex attenuation or the lower tip
prior to fluent speech when compared to the nonstutterers. Reflex
modulation associated with dysfluent speech was quantified in three
stutterers and showed marked increases in relative magnitude of lip-
muscle reflexes prior to dysfluent speech as opposed to fluent speech
trials. Based on these results, it is suggested that reduced attenuation
of mechanoreceptor input at the time of speech-movement initiation
contributes to speech dysfluency.
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McClean, M., Kroll, R., & Loftus, N. (1990). Kinematic analysis of
lip closure in stutterer fluent speech. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND
HEARING RESEARCH, 33, 755-760.
In an attempt to evaluate previous observations regarding the
fluent speech of stutterers and to describe the possible effects of
speech therapy, the authors of this study analyzed the lip and jaw
motion of 28 subjects. The subjects were divided as follows; 10
normal speakers, 10 stutterers with no recent speech therapy, and 8
stutterers who had recently undergone intensive therapy including
rate reduction strategies. Very little difference was found between
the normal speaking subjects and the stutterers who had no recent
therapy. Stutterers who had recently been through therapy
demonstrated increased jaw movement durations and longer times to
lip and jaw velocity peaks related to the acoustic onset of the vowel.
The authors state that this finding implies that abnormalities of the
physical aspects of a stutterers' fluent speech are the result of
acquired modification of output rather than a problem with the
speech neuromotor system.
Back to index
McClean, MD., & Runyan, CM. (2000). Variations in the relative
speeds of orofacial structures with stuttering severity. JOURNAL
OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 43, 1524-1531.
This study focuses on the ideas that stuttering can be characterized
in part as a disorder in the coordination of different muscle systems.
To test this idea, an electromagnetic system was used to obtain
measures of lip, tongue, and jaw speed in thirty-eight adults (29 PWS
and 9 normally fluent speakers, NFS). The subjects repeated a
simple speech utterance at a normal rate. The results indicated that
by using the categorical rating of stuttering severity, ratios of tongue
speed to jaw speed were significantly greater in PWS rated as severe,
compared to NFS and other PWS. Sources of the speed differences
are discussed in relation to underlying muscle activity, motor
compensation processes in adults, and the development of orofacial
motor control in children who stutter.
Back to index
McClean, M., Tasko, S., Runyan, C. (2004). Orofacial movements
associated with fluent speech in persons who stutter. JOURNAL
OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 47, 294-303.
The purpose of the study was to replicate and expand on earlier
studies that found differences in the opening and closing movement
of the vocal tract in the fluent speech of people who stutter and
people who do not stutter. This study was also interested with speed
ratios among the articulators in relation to stuttering severity. This
study did not replicate all of the previous findings, but it indicated
some correlations. The study along with its predecessors was
successful in supporting several means to measure speed and
duration of vocal tract opening and closing.
Back to index
McDonough, A., Quesal, RW. (1988). Locus of control orientation of
stutterers and nonstutterers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 13,
97-106.
This study was completed to assess the validity of the Speech
Locus of Control (SP-LOC) scale and what factors, if any, influence the
speech locus of control in stutterers. Twenty-one adult stutterers
and twenty-one adult nonstutterers were chosen as the subjects for
this study. A 173-item scale was used as a testing instrument. All
the subjects completed the battery of scales and engaged in
conversation that was recorded and analyzed to determine stutterers
percentage of stuttered words. The results showed that stutterers as
a group tended to be more external in their locus of control
orientation as it relates to speech. The SP-LOC was shown to
differentiate between stutterers and nonstutterers. The results also
showed that stutterers do not significantly differ from the general
population on personality measures. This study provided evidence
that the SP-LOC scale is a valid measure that does indeed
differentiate stutterers from nonstutterers.
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McLaughlin, S. & Cullinan, W. (1989). Disfluencies, utterance length,
and linguistic complexity in non-stuttering children. JOURNAL
OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 14, 17-36.
This investigation was to examine the relationship of
disfluencies to utterance length and linguistic complexity, with
several objectives. Ten male and ten female non-stutterers were
used as subjects. A test battery was administered along with a
spontaneous language sample and modeling procedures to elicit four
sets of utterances representing two levels of utterance length and two
levels of complexity. Higher rates of overall disfluencies occurred in
the modeling tasks involving more complex utterances. Disfluency
rates also appeared to increase based on the sex of subjects and
length of utterances. Theoretical and clinical implications were also
discussed.
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McKeehan, A. (1994). Student experiences with fluency facilitating
speech strategies. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 19(2), 113-
121.
This article discusses the results of a study conducted on 16
graduate students who spent seven days speaking with fluency
facilitating strategies, such as lengthening vowels, short utterances
and frequent pauses. The students recorded perceived listener
reaction, their own feelings and attitude towards speaking and how,
as future clinicians, they benefited from experiencing commonly
employed fluency facilitators. Among the findings were that a
majority of listener's reactions were neutral, students avoided
speaking and felt embarrassed or weird. Students reported
developing respect for people in treatment while realizing how
difficult it is to change speech behaviors. Discussion of the results
focuses on preparing student clinicians to be effective therapists and
on directions of future research.
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McKnight, R., & Cullinan, W. (1987). Subgroups of stuttering children: speech and
voice reaction times, segmental durations, and naming latencies. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS, 12, 217-233.
Speech and voice reactions times, speech segment durations, and object-naming
latencies were obtained from a group of nonstuttering children and two subgroups
of stuttering children: one subgroup (stuttering-plus) consisting of those who
needed special education services for problems in addition to stuttering, and the
other subgroup (stuttering-only) whose only apparent problem was stuttering. Each
child was tested individually using a speech-language screening task, administered
an experimenter. The total administration time for four tasks ranged from 1 to 2
hours with a break between each of the tasks. Results indicated the stuttering-plus
child! ren had significantly longer speech and voice reaction times and naming
latencies than did the stuttering-only and nonstuttering children. The stuttering-only
children differed from the nonstuttering children only in voice termination times.
The three groups did not differ in speech segment durations or in the variability of
such measures. The results in the present investigation clearly demonstrate the
importance of subgrouping stuttering children when making experimental
comparisons with nonstuttering children.
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McLean-Muse, A., Larson, C., & Gregory, H. (1988). Stutterers' and nonstutterers'
voice fundamental frequency changes in response to auditory stimuli. JOURNAL
OF SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, 31, 549-555.
An investigation analyzed stutterers' and nonstutterers auditory-laryngeal reflexes
in hopes that it may provide a non invasive means of determining whether or not
brainstem level reflex activity differs between stutterers and nonstutterers. This study
presented compares adult male stutterers' and adult male nonstutterers' auditory-
laryngeal reflexes by sustaining phonation at a constant pitch and intensity level while
receiving bilateral auditory click stimuli. Each person's fundamental frequency signal
averages were generated and measured. The data indicated that there were no
differences between stutterers and nonstutterers frequency of reflex occurrence.
Back to index
Meltzer, A. (1992). Horn Stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 17, 4. 257-264
This paper presents a case study of an adult male stutterer who
also stutters while playing the French horn. The client attended an
intensive precision fluency shaping program 7 hours a day for 1
month. Results indicate that respiratory, laryngeal , and
oropharyngeal dysfunction perceived as stuttering can occur in
activities with similar demands.
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Menzies, R., Onslow, M., & Packman, A. (1999). Anxiety and Stuttering:
Exploring a Complex Relationship. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-
LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 8, 3-10.
Although there is a lot of evidence , it has not yet been proven that people
who stutter demonstrate higher levels of anxiety than those who do not stutter.
The authors describe the evidence that supports a positive relationship between
the two, and explain reasons why it has not yet been proven. The authors state
some biases that have occurred in research that have led to negative findings in
the relationship between anxiety and stuttering. Some biases discussed are: the
construct of anxiety, small subject numbers, treatment status of subjects, using
only single-speaking tasks, and trait anxiety measures.
Back to index
Messenger, M., Onslow, M., Packman, A., & Menzies, R., (2004). Social
anxiety in stuttering: Measuring negative social expectancies. JOURNAL
OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 29, 2001-212.
This study looks at whether expectancy of social harm is associated with
speech related anxiety in those who stutter. Two clinical measurements of
anxiety, the Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) Scale and the Endler
Multidimensional Anxiety Scales-Trait (EMAS-T), are administered to
thirty-four stuttering and thirty-four control participants to determine how
anxiety relates to expectancies of social harm in people who stutter. For
chronic stuttering management, the management of anxiety must consider
the extent and the precise details of the nature of the anxiety. The results
indicate that those who stutter differ from control subjects in their
expectations of negative social evaluations in the contexts of Social
Evaluations and New/Strange Situations. Further, the FNE and the EMAS-
T are demonstrated as appropriate psychological tests of anxiety for use
with stuttering clients in a clinical setting.
Back to index
Meyers-Fosnot, S. (1995). Some contemporary approaches in
treating fluency disorders in preschool, school-age, and adolescent
children. LANGUAGE SPEECH AND HEARING SERVICES IN THE
SCHOOLS, 26 (2), 115-117.
This article is an overview and introduction to the entire April
1995 issue of LSHSS focusing on the treatment of preschool and
school-age children who stutter. Current intervention strategies and
procedures presented by experts in the field such as Starkweather,
Ramig, Daly, Healey, Ratner, and St. Louis are highlighted in this
introductory article. According to Meyers-Fosnot, fluency disorders
can be managed effectively and efficiently with age-appropriate
treatment refined to the individual needs of the client. Early
intervention should be a pivotal focus, and clinicians should become
proficient fluency specialists in the school environment through
reading of recent literature, education, and workshops. It is also
noted by the author that the information in this April 1995 issue is
by no means exhaustive, and the reader in encouraged to review
other approaches for treating fluency disorders.
Back to index
Meyers, S.C. (1986). Qualitative and quantitative differences and patterns of variability
in disfluencies emitted by preschool stutterers and nonstutterers during dyadic
conversations. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 11, 293-306.
The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not there are quantitative and
qualitative differences in disfluencies in children who do and do not stutter. There were
twenty-four sets of children and mothers involved in the study. Each mother interacted
with their own child, an unfamiliar child who stuttered and an unfamiliar child who did
not stutter. The results show that the children who stuttered are quantitatively and
qualitatively different from the children who did not stutter. Both had similar amounts of
normal disfluencies however, the children who stuttered used more part word repetitions,
prolongations and tense pauses. Another important result was that the frequency of
disfluencies was not significantly affected by the identity of the child's conversation
partner or by the child's familiarity with the testing room.
Back to index
Meyers, SC., Ghatak, LR., & Woodford, LL. (1989). Case descriptions of
nonfluency and loci: Initial and follow-up conversations with
three preschool children. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 14,
383-397.
This study compared disfluencies of three children, ages 3 years
8 months to 3 years 9 months. One child stuttered, one was language
impaired and one had normal speech and language. The data was
collected during child and mother play, on two occasions, six months
apart. The child who stuttered was the only one to receive
intervention services during the six month interval. The child who
stuttered reduced dysfluencies (18% to 1%) and increased disfluencies
(2.5 - 7.5%), with an overall decrease in nonfluencies from 20.5 -
8.5%. The language impaired child decreased dysfluencies (4 - 2%)
and disfluencies (5.5 - 4.5%). The child who had no stuttering or
language impairment remained consistent with dysfluencies (.5%) and
reduced disfluencies (4.5 - 2%). For all children, a high percentage of
the dysfluencies occurred on conjunctions and pronouns. Future
studies will use larger groups to obtain more conclusive results.
Back to index
Meyers, SC., Strang, HR., & Hall, EL. (1989). Impact of
Microcomputer Simulation Training on Student-Clinicians'
Ability to Effectively Intervene with Preschool Stutterers.
JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 14, 135-151.
This is a program that was developed to help future speech-
language pathologists learn effective techniques to use with preschool
stutterers. It was used with twenty graduate students with twenty
subjects (ten control subjects, and 10 computer-defined stutterers).
They were given eight intervention categories to use for coding
measures. These measures include: explain/describe, slow talk,
positive feedback, model, interrupt, fast talk, negative feedback, and
inappropriate questions. The outcome of the computer training
showed tremendous value. It provided the students with therapy
experiences and more confidence.
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Miles, S. & Ratner, N. B. (2001). Parental language input to children at stuttering
onset. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH,
44 1116-1130.
This study examined the effects of parental linguistic input in relation to the onset
of stuttering. Participants included twelve stuttering children, twelve non-stuttering
counterparts, and the mothers of the children in each group. Spontaneous language
samples were gathered for each parent-child dyad within the two groups. The
language samples were analyzed in relation to the language samples lexical diversity,
rarity, and syntactic complexity. Results indicated that there was not a significant
difference between the two groups of parents on measures of syntactic complexity,
lexical diversity, rarity, or conversational participation.
Miller, S., & Watson, B.L. (1992). The relationship between
communication attitude, anxiety, and depression in stutterers and
nonstutterers. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH,
35, 789-798.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship
between state and trait anxiety, depression, and communication
attitude of PWS and nonstuttering subjects. Fifty Two PWS and 52
nonstutterers were involved in the study. The results showed that
there were no significant differences between the two groups on
anxiety, or depression. The communication attitude was poorer for
the PWS and become worse as self-ratings of stuttering were more
severe.
Back to index
Molt, L.F. (1996). An examination of various aspects of auditory
processing in clutterers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS 21, 215-
225.
This study consisted of three male clutterers, aged 9:7, 11:4, and
12:6, and three male normal speaking subjects who were involved in
an examination of auditory processing abilities. The first clutterer
had ADD/H and was learning disabled. The second clutterer had
ADD/WO, was learning disabled and had previously been classified as
a stutterer. The third clutterer had ADD/WO. The subjects underwent
a CAP battery including the SSW, LPFS, PPS, SRT, and a subtest of the
SMMT. An AEP measure was also done. The cluttering subjects all
should CAP and AEP deficits. Because the three subjects had
diagnosis of ADD/WO or ADD/H, results of this study cannot be
summarized to other clutterers.
Back to index
Moore, WH,. Jr. (1986). Hemispheric alpha asymmetries of stutterers and nonstutterers
for the recall and recognition of words and connected reading passages: some
relationships to severity of stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS,
11, 71-89.
This study examined the presence of morphologic asymmetries of the two cerebral
hemispheres in PWS, compared to NS. Thirty-six subjects (12 NS males, 12 NS females,
and 12 PWS males) of all ages were asked to listen to a male voice recording while wearing
an electrode cap. The participants were then asked questions to test recall and
recognition. The results indicated right hemisphere alpha suppression was greater among
stutterers in memory and stimulus tasks compared to NS whose left hemisphere showed
greater alpha suppression.
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Morgan, M., Cranford, J., & Burk, K. (1997). P300 Event-Related
Potentials in Stutterers and Nonstutterers. JOURNAL OF SPEECH,
LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 40, 1334-1340.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences
between adult stutterers and nonstutterers in the P300 event-
related potential. The P300 response measures cognitive functioning
in response to an unexpected event. P300's were recorded and
analyzed to whether or not stutterers show patterns of
interhemispheric activity that differ from nonstutters. Subjects were
16 adult males comprised of 8 stutterers and 8 nonstutterers. As a
result of the study, all 8 nonstutterers showed a higher amplitude
P300 activity in the right hemisphere for tonal stimuli. Five out of
the 8 disfluent subjects showed a higher left hemisphere amplitude
activity. Results of the study indicate that stutterers and
nonstutterers may possess differences between hemispheres in
processing some types of nonlinguistic stimuli.
Back to index
Moscicki, E. K. (1993). Fundamental methodological considerations
in controlled clinical trials. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 18,
183-196.
The purpose of this article is to present a discussion of
fundamental issues that need to be addressed in any test of
treatment efficacy. A major focus of this article is on the principles
of experimental epidemiology. The authors intent of the article is to
present the basic principles of randomized controlled clinical trials in
a framework that can be used as a guide for future research on the
efficacy of stuttering treatments. Some of the ground covered in this
article will be familiar to the stuttering researcher; while other areas
will represent unexplored territory.
Back to index
Mowrer, D. (1987). Reported use of a Japanese accent to promote fluency.
JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 1, 19-39.
This article introduces an 18 year-old Caucasian man who used a Japanese accent
to eliminate his stuttering symptoms. He apparently imitated the accent from a group
of Japanese exchange students he had known in high school. Although this young
man had never been labeled a stutterer, he felt he had communication problems
throughout his life. The article examines the speech patterns and general speech
characteristics of the subject. Speech samples are taken and analyzed to determine if
he is a stutterer or a clutterer. The findings of the study revealed a difficulty to label
him either of the two. In the final discussion of this young man, it was determined that
his perceived communication difficulties may have stemmed from psychological needs
rather than abnormal speech and language issues.
Back to index
Mowrer, D. (1998). Alternative Research Strategies for the Investigation of
Stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 23, 89-97.
This article promotes the use of many different research methods to find
out more about stuttering. Mowrer describes some of the research methods as
well as the pro's and con's of each. The research methods discussed are:
expiremetal method, scientific research, behavioral research, and four types of
observational designs. The observational designs are: case study, natural
observation, simulation observation, and content analysis. This article strongly
emphasizes the importance of clinical observation in the study of stuttering.
Back to index
Mowrer, D. (1998). Editorial to Mowrer's Case Study: "An Analysis of the
Sudden Onset and Disappearance of Disfluencies in the Speech of a 2 1/2-
year-old boy." JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 23, 99-102.
This article precedes the case study, "An Analysis of the Sudden Onset and
Disappearance of Disfluencies in the Speech of a 2 1/2-year-old boy." It
provides some additional information about this case study. It gives some
background information about how the data was obtained for the study.
Mowrer also discusses the importance of reporting case studies so comparisons
can be made and similarities can be found. He also gives a list of criticisms of
the this case study.
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Mowrer, D. (1998). Analysis of the Sudden Onset and Disappearance of
Disfluencies in the Speech of a 2 1/2-year-old boy. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 23, 103-118.
This is a case study about a 2 1/2 year old boy who experienced a sudden
onset of disfluent speech, after being with a babysitter, that lasted for 10 days,
disappeared and then came back again 12 days later at the mention of the
babysitters name. The disfluent speech disappeared again after 18 days and
never came back (followed for 5 years). The mother reported that her son has
on several occasions been very upset when left with babysitters and is anxious
for his parents return. There were two methods used to record and assess data.
The mother kept a journal in which she recorded significant events before,
during and after the time in which her son had disfluent speech. She also
videotaped several conversations she had with her son. There are several
factors that may have contributed to the boy's onset and disappearance of
disfluencies. Personality characteristics of the child, characteristics of the
parents and environmental factors may have all played a role.
Back to index
Murphy, W. & Quesal, R. (2002). Strategies for addressing bullying with the school-
age child who stutters. SEMINARS IN SPEECH AND LANGUAGE, 23, 205-
211.
One of the factors increasing the challenge of treating stuttering in the school
setting is the bullying experienced by the child who stutters. Bullying can diminish
self-worth, reduce school performance, increase social rejection, and lead to
depression and feelings of helplessness and loneliness. In addition to the impact on a
childıs self-confidence, bullying can also aggravate stuttering behavior, increase
negative thoughts, and reduce therapy progress. The intervention model proposed
includes four components: (1) desensitize children to stuttering behaviors, (2) teach
children who stutter to be assertive, (3) increase childrenıs self-esteem, and (4)
educate classmates about stuttering and bullying behaviors.
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Murphy, WP & Quesal, RW. (2004). Best practices for preparing students to
work with people who stutter. CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN
COMMUNICATION SCIENCE AND DISORDERS, 31, 25-39.
This article considers the need for training of stuttering in the classroom and clinic
settings. It has been reported that many clinicians do not feel prepared to work
with or write treatment goals for clients who stutter. The authors talk about some
suggestions for how to teach stuttering in the classroom, how to find clients who
stutter so that students can have experience working with clients who stutter and
how to supervise student clinicians who are working with clients who stutter.
Murphy and Quesal discuss the characteristics of a good fluency clinician and
supervisor. They say that a client who stutters should have the same supervisor
throughout the duration of treatment. Murphy and Quesal recommend that
supervisors should watch at least twenty minutes of every other session for a client
who stutters. In this article, Murphy and Quesal discuss a formal model for
supervision. They recommend both group and individual meetings with clinicians
working with clients who stutter. Murphy and Quesal end the article with some
additional advice for instructors, supervisors and students.
Back to index
Murphy, W.P., Yaruss, J.S., and Quesal, R.W., (2007). Enhancing
treatment for school-age children who stutter: I. Reducing
negative reactions through desensitization and cognitive
restructuring. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, Vol. 32, Issue
2, 121-138.
This is a case study of an 8-year-old boy with a moderate-to-
severe stutter who expressed self-awareness of his avoidance
behaviors. He reported negative attitudes and emotions regarding
his own communication, other students' comments, and therapy
techniques. He had also experienced bullying related to his speech.
Treatment included education about stuttering, desensitization to
stuttering, cognitive restructuring, stuttering modification and
fluency-enhancing techniques. The focus of therapy was on
achieving good communication rather than fluency. Post-therapy
scores on the CAT-R (measuring attitudes) and SSI-3 (measuring
severity) were improved, and there was a reduction in frequency of
disfluencies. Reported results included increased communication in
the classroom, and use of speech modification techniques, although
the client reported some apprehension about using the techniques in
new situations.
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Murphy, W. P., Yaruss, J. S., & Quesal, R. W. (2007). Enhancing
treatment of school-age children who stutter II: Reducing
bullying through role-playing and self-disclosure. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS, 32, 139-162.
This article discusses several strategies for handling bullying
situations for children who stutter. These include learning about
bullying, role-playing, and educating classmates about stuttering.
When applied in a treatment program, these strategies gave Noah,
the child in the case study, more confidence in dealing with bullies,
and more knowledge on how to handle a bully-type situation. This
knowledge helped his overall self-esteem and improved his negative
feelings towards being bullied. Additionally, classroom education
resulted in decreased negative reactions and comments by the child's
classmates. Results suggest that including strategies for reducing
bullying in therapy along with additional stuttering education and
treatment may be beneficial to the child.
Back to index
Myers, F.L. (1996). Annotations of research and clinical perspectives
on cluttering since 1964. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS 21, 187-
199.
This paper includes 36 annotated bibliographies on almost
everything that has been written about cluttering since Weiss's 1964
publication.
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Myers, F.L. (1996). Cluttering: A matter of perspective. JOURNAL OF
FLUENCY DISORDERS 21, 175-185.
This article gives a brief history on cluttering including views of
the past. The article then discusses the "current trends" of cluttering.
It goes on to say how clinical studies on therapy approaches are
needed and that in the near future cluttering shouldn't be a disorder
that is "lost in the woods."
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Myers, F.L., & St. Louis, K.O. (1996). Two youths who clutter, but is
that the only similarity? JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 21
(3/4), 297-304.
This article presents similarities and differences for two young
male subjects who clutter. Fluency, rate, language, articulation, and
other factors are compared. As knowledge is gained on the nature
and symptomatology of cluttering, it is concluded that clutterers are
not constricted to a homogeneous population.
Back to index
Myers, F. L., & St. Louis, K. O., (2006). Disfluency and speaking rate in
cluttering: Perceptual judgements versus counts. BULGARIAN
JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, 1, 28-34.
This is a retrospective study focusing on an experimental
therapy for people who clutter. The original study was conducted in
1996 and focused on 2 people who cluttered. The original study used
DAF in oral reading, monologue and conversation or dialogue. During
each task, each subject used the DAF at 4 different levels and was
required to meet criteria for rate and fluency at each level.
Nontreatment probes were recorded before treatment and after each
stage. The current study compared scaled perceptual judgments and
fluency counts for each of the probes that were conducted during the
original study. The study found that a nine point perceptual scale
was not accurate enough to replace time consuming rate and fluency
counts.
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Nachman, G. (2006). Learning and discovering: A parent's journey
with stuttering. THE JOURNAL OF STUTTERING THERAPY,
ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH, 1 (1), 111-113.
Gerrie Nachman begins by discussing her and her husband's
initial finding of their son's articulation and phonological delays along
with his dysfluencies. A SLP conducted free screenings at their son's
preschool. The SLP suggested he be seen for further evaluation.
After a difficult journey, they found an SLP who came to their home
and helped their son. Gerrie sat in on lessons to discover ways to
help him at home and within time he became significantly more
fluent. When they began to tackle his articulation deficits it seemed
his stuttering became worse. Their SLP suggested he take a break
from therapy and just focus on fluency. They eventually found a
young clinician at a private practice who worked with their son for 6
years. Gerrie discusses how her son eventually became more
confident and engaged with others. She strongly believes this is due
to the SLP emphasizing being a good communicator and the self-help
community they joined which teaches parents to view stuttering in a
different light. Their family engaged in many programs related to
stuttering such as FRIENDS (The Association of Young People Who
Stutter). With the help from their surroundings, Gerrie and her
husband began to focus more on their son's life rather than his
fluency difficulties. Her experiences with the clinicians, learning new
skills to use at home with her son and participating in the stuttering
community has had a remarkable influence on her journey with her
son and his stuttering.
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Natke, U., Grosser Karl, J., & Kalveram, T. (2001). Fluency, fundamental frequency,
and speech rate under frequency-shifted auditory feedback in stuttering and
nonstuttering persons. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 26, 227-241.
The purpose of this study was to expose whether frequency shifting changes
fundamental frequency in ongoing speech and whether these changes related to
fluency enhancement. Two groups of ten stuttering and ten nonstuttering males,
whose native language was German, participated in the study. The participants had to
use spontaneous speech for five minutes under three conditions of auditory feedback:
raised _ octave of frequency-shifted auditory feedback (FAF), lowered _ octave FAF,
and non altered auditory feedback. The fluency-enhancing effect of FAF was
measured by the percentage of discontinuous speech time (PSDT). Results showed
that in persons who stuttered, the downward shift led to a fluency enhancement of
twenty-five percent measured by the PSDT, while the upward shift led to a fluency
enhancement of twenty-one percent. An effect on global fundamental frequency in
nonstuttering persons was indicated between the non altered and the upward shift
condition. Persons who stuttered, as a group, did not show a change in global
fundamental frequency.
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Natke, U., Grosser, J., Sandrieser, P., & Kalveram, KT. (2002). The duration component
of the stress effect in stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 27, 305-
319.
This article gives information on language factors related to stuttering and the effects of
stressed syllables with adults who stutter. A case study was described where 16 adults
with a mean age of 33 who stutter mildly to very severely were tested to compare the
instances of stuttering on stressed versus unstressed syllables of words. The German
subjects read aloud from a text. The researches analyzed the stuttering instances on short
and long stressed and unstressed syllables in the initial and medial positions of words.
Data revealed stuttering events occurred more often on short first stressed syllable of
words than on unstressed, long stressed, or intermediate stress syllables of words.
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Natke, U., Sandriese, P., Pietrowsky, R., & Kalveram, K. T. (2006).
Disfluency data of German preschool children who stutter and
comparison children. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 31, 165-
176.
This study compared disfluency types in German-speaking
preschool children who stuttered (CWS) and age-matched children
who do not stutter (CWNS). Speech samples recorded during play
sessions in a research laboratory were transcribed and analyzed for
disfluencies. Disfluencies were separated by type: prolongations,
blocks, repetitions of sounds, syllables, and one-syllable words, and
other disfluencies. Results showed that CWS produced significantly
more stuttering-like disfluencies (prolongations, blocks, and
repetitions) at any age than CWNS. The groups did not differ on
measures of other disfluencies (interjections, revisions, interrupted
utterances, multisyllabic word repetitions, and phrase repetitions).
These results are concurrent with previous studies in that early
stuttering is different from normal disfluency and that the presence
of stuttering-like disfluencies should not be considered normal
language development.
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Neiman, G.S. and Rubin, R.B. (1991). Changes in communication
apprehension, satisfaction, and competence in foreign dialect and
stuttering clients. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 24,
353-366.
Research indicates that speech-impaired clients' attitudes and
psychological predispositions significantly affect their therapy
progress. This study looked at whether communication
predispositions are altered as a function of speech therapy. The
results indicated that there were significantly lower levels of
communication apprehension and higher levels of communication
competence after 30 months of therapy.
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Nelson, L.A. (1996). Critical review of the special edition on
cluttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 21 (3/4), 345-348.
This article provides a general overview of cluttering and its
components. It focuses on what is known about cluttering, what has
recently been learned about cluttering, and what has yet to be
learned about cluttering.
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Neiman, G.S. & Rubin, R. B. (1991). Changes in communication
apprehension, satisfaction, and competence in foreign dialect and
stuttering clients. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS,
24(516): p353-366.
This is a study done on two groups of subjects, international
graduate students and persons who stutter. The groups consisted of
15 male adults enrolled in accent reduction therapy and 13 male
adults enrolled in stuttering therapy. The research design was set up
to find out how the subjects perceptions of their communication
competence, communication apprehension, and general satisfaction
with their communication, developed over the course of their
therapy. The results indicated that both groups had significantly
lower levels of communication apprehension and perceptions of
communication competence had increased after 3 months of therapy.
The individual clients also improved significantly on the speech
parameters that their therapy focused on.
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Neumann, K., Euler, HA., Giraud, AL., Lanfermann, H., Gall, V., & Preibisch, C. (2003).
The nature and treatment of stuttering as revealed by fMRI: A within- and between-
group comparison. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 28, 381-410.
The purpose of this study was to use fMRI to identify changes in the activation patterns
attributed to improved fluency resulting from an intensive fluency shaping therapy.
Participants in this study included five male adults with developmental stuttering. The
Kassel Stuttering Therapy, a modified version of the Precision Fluency Shaping Program,
was used as the therapy model for this study. The participants underwent fMRI
measures prior to starting therapy, immediately after therapy, and two years post-
therapy. The results of the fMRI measures were compared within group and against a
control group. Prior to therapy, the PWS group showed higher and more distributed
activation than the control group during overt reading tasks. Immediately following
therapy, the activation patterns were even more distributed and left-hemisphere focused.
Functional MRI measures conducted two years after therapy indicated slightly reduced
activation patterns, with a trend to more right-sided involvement.
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Neumann, K., Preibisch, C., Euler, H.A., Gudenberg, A.W., Lanferman,
H., Gall, V., & Giraud, A. (2005). Cortical Plasticity Associated
with Stuttering Therapy. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS,
30(1), 23-39
Findings of functional neuroimaging studies have indicated
disturbances between the left sensorimotor cortex, inferior frontal
speech regions (Brocaıs area), and temporal regions of the brain
during speech production in persistent developmental stuttering
(PDS). In addition (fMRI) images also reveal a systematic
overactivation of the right frontal operculum (RFO) in PDS subjects.
In this study comparisons of speech related neural activation
patterns in nine stuttering and nonstuttering adults males during
fluent reading and silent semantic decision making tasks have been
studied before and with 12 weeks after fluency shaping therapy.
Results indicate that there were higher and extended activations
after therapy than before therapy, predominantly left-sided and
bilateral temporal. Observations also reveal that the areas with
increased activation post therapy were in the left insula and the left
Rolandic operculum which were in the surrounding areas of the
recently found white matter lesion (Sommer et al., 2002). In
conclusion this study does support that successful fluency-shaping
therapy shifts brain activity form right-hemisphere circuits to left
hemisphere speech related regions with intensive treatment.
Additionally, post-treatment activation supports a higher degree of
compensation after a successful treatment.
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Newman, L. (1987). The effects of punishment of repetitions and the acquisition of
"stutter-like" behaviors in normal speakers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 1, 51-62.
This study uses punishment tactics with normally fluent speakers to try to elicit
stuttering like behaviors. The punishing stimulus delivered to normally fluent speakers
was contingent on repetitions. In an effort to avoid the punishing stimulus, the
subjects changed their speaking behavior to decrease repetitions in their speech. This
resulted in an unnatural way of speaking, characterized by reduced speech rate. Every
normally fluent subject responded with some type of behavior. From this study, it
appears that speech rate slows with awareness of speech mistakes, making speech less
fluid and more effortful overall.
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Newman, P., Channel, R., & Palmer, M. (1986). A comparative study of the
independence of unilateral ocular
motor control in stutterers and nonstutterers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 11, 105-116.
The purpose of this study was to determine if people who stutter and people who do
not stutter have the same unilateral ocular motor control. The study involved nineteen
people who stutter and nineteen people who do not stutter. Thirteen people who stutter
were considered mild, four were considered moderate, and two were considered severe.
Each person had photographs taken of their eyes wide open and also closed. This was
done for measurement purposes. Next photographs were taken when they closed only
the right eye, and also when they closed only the left eye. The results indicated a
difference between people who stutter and people who do not stutter in their ability to
close one eye and keep the other eye open.
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Newman, P.W., Fawcet, K. D., & Russon, K. V. (1986). Cognitive processing in
stuttering as related to
translating slurvian. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS. 11, 251-256.
The purpose of this research study was to compare the performances of stutterers and
nonstutterers in translating slurvian. A slurvian consists of a meaningless phrase or
sentence, which by the manipulation of juncture and stress patterns, can be rephrased or
translated into a meaningful statement. The study consisted of 18 stutterers and 18
nonstutterers. Administration of the experimental task included 2 sets of slurvians, which
the subjects had 30 seconds to translate each slurvian into a meaningful statement.
Results of the experiment were variable, with the stutterers as a whole, performing more
poorly than the nonstutterers. Results suggest that the population of stutterers is not
homogeneous and that a relationship between stuttering and inferior performance in
translating slurvians exists in some cases.
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Newman, PW., Harris, RW., & Hilton, LM. (1989). Vocal jitter and
shimmer in stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 14,
87-95.
This study focuses on the laryngeal dynamics of vocal jitter and
shimmer in people who stutter. "Vocal jitter and shimmer are
acoustic measures of those vocal perturbances obtained from
sustained vowel phonations." ( p. 88). If the magnitude of either
jitter or shimmer in stutterers is found to be greater than that of
nonstutterers, it would provide a further basis for the hypothesis that
stutterers may have less neurophysiologic control over their
mechanisms of phonation and respiration.
Subjects were told to phonate and sustain 4 different vowels 9
different times for at least five seconds each. A miniature
accelerometer was used to record the subjects. The results showed
that for both jitter and shimmer the mean percent was larger for
stutterers than for nonstutterers. For jitter the percentage was not
significant but for shimmer it was. These results suggest that
"stutterers have less stable neuromuscular control over events
regulating the aerodynamics of the laryngeal and respiratory systems
during sustained fluent vowel articulations than nonstutterers" (p.
94).
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Newman, R.S., and Ratner, N.B. (2007). The role of selected lexical
factors on confrontation naming accuracy, speed, and fluency in
adult who do and do not stutter. JOURNAL OF SPEECH,
LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 50, 196-213.
This study examines the effects of lexical features on word
retrieval abilities in adults who stutter and those who do not.
Participants entered into the study consisted of 25 adults who stutter
and 25 adults who do not. Each of the 50 subjects completed 107
trails which targeted one of three lexical components: neighborhood
frequency, neighborhood density, or word frequency. Each response
was judged based on the subjects reaction time, fluency and response
accuracy. Results of the study reveal a small but insignificant
difference in the reaction times of individuals who stutter vs. those
who do not on all three lexical components. Adults who stutter had
lower accuracy rates on the confrontational naming tasks. However,
with the exception of word frequency, the fluency of adults who
stutter was not influenced by neighborhood frequency or density.
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Nippold, M. A. (1995). Parents' speech and children's stuttering: A
critique of the literature. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 38(5). 978-989.
The literature reviewed in this article finds little or no difference
between parents of children who stutter and parents of children who
do not stutter. The manner in which parents talk to their children, as
well as the parents' speech behaviors, are the criteria upon which
these conclusions are derived
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Nippold, M. (2002). Stuttering and phonology: is there an interaction? AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 2, 99-110.
Speech-language pathologists have been interested for many decades in the
phonological skills of children who stutter. Many investigators have reported that
children who stutter are often more likely to have a phonological disorder than their
peers who do not stutter. It is commonly reported that 30%-40% of children who
stutter have a co-occurring phonological disorder. Reports of this nature have
prompted researchers to examine the possibility that stuttering and phonology may
interact in some way. In the intervention literature, it is recommended that treatment
for children who stutter and have a phonological disorder take an indirect approach.
Many examinations of children were alluded to in the article but in the end the results
indicated that children did demonstrate normal phonological development when being
classified as a mild to severe stutterer, and that children with phonological disorders
did not necessarily stutter more severely than those with normal phonological
development.
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Nippold, MA., & Rudzinski, M. (1995). Parents' speech and children' s
stuttering: A critique of the literature. JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND
HEARING RESEARCH, 38, 978-989.
This article is a review of the literature concerning the role of
parents in the onset and development, of their children's stuttering.
This article examines the literature from three decades and suggests
that although much research has been conducted concerning the roll
of the parent, it still cannot be stated with confidence that a parent' s
speech behaviors or modification of speech contribute to their child' s
stuttering. Thus, the authors provide treatment and research
implications.
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Nowak, WJ., Stone, ER. (1987). Acquired Stuttering and Bilateral Cerebral Disease.
JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 2, 141-146.
Two cases of adult (females, ages 21 and 55) acquired stuttering are presented.
Both patients best fit into the category of acquired, or cortical stuttering (ACS). The
onset of ACS was abrupt in both cases and from neither patient, could a history of
speech problems prior to now, be elicited. Both patients had an onset of ACS
coincident with evidence of bi-hemisphere dysfunction. Speculation that ACS is due
to a multiple series of insults to the brain, rather than a single, specific cerebral
location is explored.
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Nuck, M.E., Blood, G.W., & Blood, I.M. (1987). Fluent and disfluent normal
speakers' responses on a synthetic sentence identification (SSI) task. JOURNAL
OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, 20, 161-169.
This study addresses the question of a relationship between fluency and central
auditory processing. Prior research suggests a central auditory problem as a possible
etiology in stuttering. This study examines any differences in tests of auditory
processing for groups of male and female, fluent and disfluent normal speakers. It
reports significant differences for speakers at this end of the fluency spectrum,
suggesting that a momentary lapse in fluency may be attributed to a deficiency in
central auditory processing at the time. No significant differences were found
between genders.
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Nudelman, H.B., Herbrich, B.D. Hoyt, B.D. & Rosenfield, D.B. (1989).
A Neuroscience Model of Stuttering. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY
DISORDERS, 14, 399-427.
This study considers stuttering using a theoretic two loop
speech production model. In this model, an outer loop is responsible
for formulating ideas, linguistic planning and monitoring. An inner
loop is responsible for the phonologic production and monitoring.
Analyzation of humming output of adults, who did and did not
stutter, revealed wider variability in timing with those who do
stutter. Timing in speech could increase in the outer loop due to time
required for linguistic planning and for the inner loop with complex
articulation or frequency changes required. Common methods to
eliminate stuttering are explained by this multiloop theory. Slowing
speech rate allows more time for the processing and executing speech
movements. Rehearsal minimizes time needed for planning,
increasing fluency (adaptation). Stuttering is the result of instability
in the system, and the system's response to the instability.
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Nwokah, EE. (1988). The imbalance of stuttering behavior in
bilingual speakers. JOURNAL OF FLUENCY DISORDERS, 13, 357-373.
This study looks at the varying incidence of stuttering from one
culture to the next. The purpose of the study was to answer two
questions: 1. "Do people who are bilingual or multilingual and stutter
do so equally in each language?" and 2. "Do some stutterers speak
totally fluent in one language but stutter in another?" Sixteen
stutterers between the ages of 16 and 40 living in Anambra State,
Nigeria were chosen as the subjects for this study. All of the subjects
received a minimum of five years of high school education and were
balanced bilinguals, meaning they are equally competent in both
languages of English and Igbo. Each subject completed a
questionnaire and read aloud a 300-word passage both in English
and Igbo. The readings were tape-recorded and the tapes were
analyzed for occurrence of stuttered words. The results showed that
all but one subject stuttered more in one language than the other in
both spontaneous speech and reading activities. Almost all of the
stutterers were aware of which language they stuttered the most.
Socio-cultural aspects of bilingual stuttering were also overviewed in
relation to the findings.
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O'Brian, S., Onslow, M., Cream, A., & Packman, A. (2003). The Camperdown program:
outcomes of a new prolonged speech treatment model. JOURNAL OF SPEECH,
LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 46, 933-946.
This program is a prolonged-speech (PS) treatment which focuses on control of chronic
stuttering. PS treatment can be used for mild to severe adults who stutter. It is a four
stage intervention that focuses on individual teaching sessions, group practice, individual
problem-solving, and performance contingent maintenance. Sixteen participants were
involved in a limited, 20 hour clinic program. The intervention utilizes videos, from
which the client imitates, and self-evaluation and self-monitoring, as opposed to
traditional client-clinician instruction. The study found favorable outcomes and generally
positive self-reported benefits.
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OıBrian, S., Packman, A., Onslow, M. (2004). Self- Rating of stuttering
severity as a clinical tool. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH
LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, 13(3), 219-227.
This study was conducted by employing 9 men and 1 woman
adult stutterers to investigate the 9 point self-administering severity
rating scale. The most important aim was to establish the extent to
which clients' ratings of stuttering severity, made both within and
outside of the clinic, agreed with those of treating clinicians. This
procedure was carried out by rating 6 recorded samples in which
each of the subjects and the clinician rated the severity, based on
predetermined criteria. Results indicated that the ratings of the
clinicians were in good agreement with the clientıs self-rating of
stuttering severity by 78%. In conclusion this study reveals that the
9-point rating scale is a reasonably reliable tool for clients to judge
or rate their severity in natural as well as in therapy environments.
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O'Brian, S., Packman, A., Onslow, M., O'Brian, N. (2003). Generalizability theory II:
Application to perceptual
scaling of speech naturalness in adults who stutter. JOURNAL OF SPEECH,
LANGUAGE, AND HEARING
RESEARCH, 46, 718-723.
The purpose of this study was to test the Generalizability theory, which is a method
for estimating the reliability of observational data. In this study, 15 unsophisticated
raters utilized the Nine-Point Speech Naturalness Scale of R. R. Martin, S. K. Haroldson,
and K. A. Triden (1984) to evaluate the speech of a group of people who stutter and an
age and sex-matched group of people who don't stutter. The G-theory analysis provided
a way to calculate how many raters and how many ratings are required to obtain a reliable
rating from an observation scale. Results of this study suggest that this type of analysis
is effective when used to evaluate observational scales on a case-by-case basis.
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O'Brian, S., Packman, A., Onslow, M., & O'Brian, N. (2004).
Measurement of stuttering in adults: Comparison of stuttering-
rate and severity-scaling methods. JOURNAL OF SPEECH,
LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH, 47, 1081-1087.
This study investigated the comparative reliability of 2
stuttering measurement tools: percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS)
and a 9-point severity scale (SEV). These tools were compared in
terms of (a) their distribution for a stuttering population, (b) their
relative reliability, and (c) the degree to which scores on one tool
predicted scores on the other. The participants included 90 stuttering
adults and 10 non-stuttering adults. The judges were 12 speech-
language pathologists experienced in the treatment of stuttering. The
judges watched 3-minute videotapes of each participant and rated
%SS and severity. Results indicated a very high intrajudge and
interjudge agreement for both measures and a strong linear
correlation between %SS scores and SEV scores. The authors
concluded that the 2 measures are reliable and could largely be used
interchangeably for the measurement of stuttering. Overall, the
study supported the use of either a %SS measure or a 9-point SEV
scale in research and clinical practice.
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Olsen, LT., Steelman, ML., Buffalo, MD., & Montague, J. (1999). Preliminary
information on stuttering characteristics contrasted between African
American and white children. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS,
32, 97-108.
The main purpose of this study was to determine if any behavioral or
attitudinal characteristics differed between African American and white children
who stuttered. More specifically, the authors examined whether there were
differences in verbal and/or visual disfluency behaviors and whether attitudes
towards various speaking situations varied between the groups. Fifteen African
American children and fifteen white children participated in this study. Both
conversational and reading speech were used as the speech sample. Verbal
disfluencies and accessory (visual) characteristics were measured using a
disfluency checklist. Each subject was also administered the Children's Attitude
Test (CAT). Results showed no significant differences in verbal and/or visual
behaviors for the reading speech. For the conversational speech, a significant
difference was noted only in one category, but it was thought that this was due
to a Type 1 statistical error and not a meaningful difference. Results of the CAT
indicated that there were no significant differences in attitudes towards
speaking situations between the groups. One question out of the thirty-five did
have a significant difference, but again it was attributed to a Type 1 statistical
error.
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Olson, E., & Bohlman, P. (2002). IDEA ı97 and children who stutter: evaluation
and intervention that lead to successful, productive lives. SEMINARS IN
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE, 23, 159-164.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ı97 is an important
component to developing appropriate evaluation and treatment programs for the child
who stutters. There are unique needs of the child who stutters that are essential to the
formulation of an effective Individualized Education Program (IEP). Information is
provided concerning an appropriate evaluation process and determination of
eligibility. IEP goals and benchmarks, therapy frequency and location, a transition
plan, involvement of parents, and criteria for dismissal are provided.
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Olswang, L.B. (1993). Treatment efficacy research: