Lexical priming of function words and content words with children who do, and do not, stutter

Ceri Savage,Peter Howell

doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2008.01.004

Ceri Savage, Peter Howell

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2008.01.004

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Abstract

The specific mechanisms that underlie childhood stuttering are not fully understood. The current study investigated these mechanisms by comparing the effect on fluency of priming different components of a short sentence. The main findings were that: (1) both children who stutter (CWS) (n=12, M age=6;3) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) (n=12, M age=6;6) were more fluent after function word (FW) priming than content word (CW) priming, (2) this effect was significantly greater for CWS than for CWNS, and (3) after FW priming, CWS produced CWs with significantly longer duration than did CWNS. These findings are discussed in relation to two competing theories of stuttering: the covert repair hypothesis (CRH) [Kolk, H., & Postma, A. (1997). Stuttering as a covert repair phenomenon. In R. F. Curlee & G. M. Siegel (Eds.), Nature and treatments of stuttering: New directions (pp. 182–203). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon] and the developmentally focused model of Howell and Au-Yeung [Howell, P., & Au-Yeung, J. (2002). The EXPLAN theory of fluency control and the diagnosis of stuttering. In E. Fava (Ed.), Current issues in linguistic theory series: Pathology and therapy of speech disorders (pp. 75–94). Amsterdam: John Benjamins].Learning outcomes: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) understand which linguistic levels can be primed in children who stutter; (2) see why EXPLAN predicts asymmetrical effects on fluency when function or content words are primed; (3) appreciate the distinguishing characteristics of CRH and EXPLAN theories.

Highlights

The current paper aims to contribute to our knowledge of the processes behind stuttering by specifying the nature of the speech production mechanisms that underpin fluent and disfluent speech in both children who stutter (CWS) and fluent children
EXPLAN suggests that young CWS do not differ from fluent speakers, except that they represent the slower end of the normal continuum for speech planning
A minority of CWS go on to persist in their stutter into adulthood because around adolescence they shift from making stalling disfluencies to advancing disfluencies, possibly as a result of environmental influences such as high turn-taking pressure (Howell, Au-Yeung, & Sackin, 1999)

Summary

Introduction

Those whose stuttering persists represent the ‘true’ stuttering population whose speech processing is distinct from that of fluent speakers They produce more disfluencies because their phonological processing is slower than that of fluent speakers, leading them to select a word before the activation has resolved more often, and so need to make more covert repairs. The evidence for such a difference is limited, as the CRH was developed from adult data. The development, and evidence in favour, of EXPLAN are reviewed by Howell (2002, 2004) and Howell and Au-Yeung (2002) These authors argue that language planning and execution are parallel independent processes with neither process being monitored for errors. The persistent speakers are advancing over-rapidly through the message for planning and execution to be synchronized (though conventional measures, such as syllable per minute, which would include the syllables involved in stallings would not be an appropriate index of speech rate differences)

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