Description of Multilingual Participants Who Stutter: An Update 2011-2018

Abstract

Coalson, Peña, and Byrd published a systematic review that demonstrated significant limitations in the language profile descriptions for multilingual participants who stutter for studies that were completed through September 2011. Given the average number of investigations of multilingual speakers who stutter has shifted from one study every 5 years to three and a half studies every year, the purpose of this study was to determine if these limitations in language profile descriptions have persisted. A systematic search of the stuttering literature between October 2011 and October 2018 was conducted to identify the number of published studies focusing on multilingual participants. Descriptors of participants’ language history, function, and proficiency were assessed within and across studies. The quality of these descriptions remains insufficient. Despite the marked increase in published research, these persisting limitations in language profile descriptions continue to compromise our understanding of the manifestation of stuttering in more than one language.