The Young Child's Awareness of Stuttering-Like Disfluency

Abstract

The emergence of awareness of stuttering has been an important factor in theoretical and clinical considerations for early childhood stuttering. The present research program is aimed at studying the development of awareness of stuttering-like disfluency in normally fluent preschool and first-grade children using responses to video speech samples. A total of 79 children in five different age groups were asked to discriminate between the speech (fluent and disfluent) of two puppets, identify with the one who speaks like them, and evaluate the disfluent and fluent speech of the puppets. It was found that from age 3, children show evidence of awareness of the disfluency used in the study, but most children reached full awareness at age 5. Also, negative evaluation of disfluent speech is observed from age 4. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Middle school students’ perceptions of a peer who stutters

“…Similar to the findings of Culatta and Sloan (1977), Ezrati-Vinacour et al (2001) found that few of the 6-and 7-year-old children could label disfluent speech as stuttering. However, children as young as 3 years of age were able to identify and discriminate between the fluent and stuttered speech.…”

“…The researchers found the children perceived the puppet with moderate stuttering more negatively than the puppet with fluent speech. In contrast to findings of Ezrati-Vinacour et al (2001), the children did not show a preference toward the puppet they would choose as a friend. In addition, the authors found the personality traits of the puppet with moderate stuttering were not perceived any more negatively than the fluent puppet.…”

“…More recently, Ezrati-Vinacour, Platzky, and Yairi (2001) examined the awareness of stuttering among children 3-7 years of age using a video sample with a fluent and disfluent puppet. Similar to the findings of Culatta and Sloan (1977), Ezrati-Vinacour et al (2001) found that few of the 6-and 7-year-old children could label disfluent speech as stuttering.…”

Early stuttering, temperament and anxiety: Two hypotheses

“…This hypothesis is tenable because awareness of stuttering develops in children from two years of age (Ambrose & Yairi, 1994;Boey et al, 2009;Yairi, 1983) and negative evaluation of stuttering is exhibited by four year old children (Ezrati-Vinacour, Platzky, & Yairi, 2001). Further, some stuttering preschool children experience negative peer responses and social interactions with peers as a consequence of their stuttering (Bernstein Ratner, 1997;Langevin, Packman, & Onslow, 2009Onslow, Attanasio, & Harrison, 2003;Yairi, 1983).…”

Communication Attitude of Slovenian Preschool Children who do and do not Stutter

“…A statistically significant difference in the scores on the Communication Attitude Test (CAT) between the six-year-old children who stutter (CWS) and those whose speech is fluent (CWNS), led the researchers to hypothesize that the presence of a difference in communication attitude before the age of six was very likely [4]. The fact that children as young as age three years perceive the difference between fluent and non-fluent speech [10,11], and indicate a preference of a fluent communication partner over a dysfluent one, already pointed to the presence of awareness of stuttering at this young age. These data, together with the fact that a negative belief surrounding communication among CWS is already present at the age of six and becomes increasingly more negative with age [4] highlight the impact that negative communication attitude can have on CWS.…”