Normative Disfluency Data for Early Childhood Stuttering

Abstract

Although the past 50 years of research on early childhood stuttering and normal disfluency have produced vital information on the general features of disfluent speech behavior of young children, an adequate normative reference for early stuttering does not exist. The purpose of this report is to provide such reference and to provide a basis for clinical needs of differential diagnosis of stuttering from normal disfluency. Data are presented from 90 stuttering children ages 2 to 5 within 6 months of stuttering onset and from 54 age-matched normally fluent children. Means for disfluency types are presented. No significant differences were found for gender or for age. Stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) did differ significantly for the stuttering and fluent groups, but other disfluencies (OD) did not. A weighted SLD is defined to further clarify differences between the groups. The pattern of disfluency types for normally fluent and for mild, moderate, and severe stuttering is presented. Stuttering is shown to be qualitatively as well as quantitatively different from normal disfluency even at the earliest stages of stuttering. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Disfluências e velocidade de fala em produção espontânea e em leitura oral em indivíduos gagos e não gagos

“…There is also a higher incidence of repetition events in the SG, both of typical disfluencies (up to two repetitions of words) and of atypical disfluencies (more than three repetitions of words, syllables and sounds) as well as atypical disfluencies of block and prolongation types, both in spontaneous speech and in oral reading. Such data confirm those found in the literature (26,27) . Repetitions can be caused by a failure in the temporization of the processes involved in the speech and it is possible that they reflect in the selection of paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes, causing difficulty in the selection of the next term and preventing the linearity of the process (25) .…”

Influences of rate, length, and complexity on speech disfluency in a single-speech sample in preschool children who stutter

“…Sawyer and Yairi measured stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) in four consecutive 300-syllable sections of a single 1200-syllable speech sample for each child. SLD were those disfluencies more typical of stuttered speech, including part-word repetitions, single-syllable whole word repetitions, and disrhythmic phonation (blocks, prolongations, and broken words; Ambrose & Yairi, 1999). Results indicated that, in general, group means for SLD grew larger as the sample size increased, and specifically, there were significantly more SLD per 100 syllables in the fourth 300-syllable section than in the first.…”

“…Severity was assessed using a weighted measure that reflected the frequency and type of SLD as well as the extent or length of the disfluencies (Ambrose & Yairi, 1999). One advantage of the weighted scale is that it accounts for the considerable contribution of disrhythmic phonation and a large number of repetition units that contribute to the perception of severity (Costello & Ingham, 1984;Zebrowski & Conture, 1989).…”

Have Disfluency-Type Measures Contributed to the Understanding and Treatment of Developmental Stuttering?

“…Yairi (1997) also recommends use of this principle, despite the ''nonstuttering'' diagnosis applied to the child described above as Participant 15. Ambrose and Yairi (1999) extended the principle by emphasizing the proportions of SLDs in relation to other disfluencies when attempting to diagnose stuttering in children (see below).…”