Longitudinal Study of Child-Parent Verbal Interaction Characteristics of Preschool Children Who Do and Who Do Not Stutter: Mothers’ Articulation rate and Naturalness in Relation to Children’s Disfluencies and Articulation rate

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate longitudinal changes in articulation rates of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) and their mother’s speaking behavior.Methods: Participants were 12 mother-child dyads, including 6 CWS (4 females and 2 male) and age-matched 6 CWNS (3 females and 3 male). Spontaneous conversational speech samples were collected at initial visit and at subsequent visit about 12 months later. The speech samples were analyzed for children’s abnormal disfluency (AD) and articulation rate as well as the mother’s articulation rate and speech naturalness.Results: No significant differences were found between the two groups in children’s articulation rate at each time interval. However, mothers of CWS exhibited significantly lower articulation rates and speech naturalness than mothers of CWNS. In the CWS group, at initial visit and 12 months later, a positive correlation was found between the mother’s articulation rate and their speech naturalness. In the CWNS group, at 12 months later, significant positive correlation was found between children’s articulation rate and mother’s articulation rate.Conclusion: The results reveal an interactive and complex relationship between mother’s speech behavior and children’s stuttering. For CWS, mothers’ verbal interaction style would be changed as a reaction to their child’s stuttering in the same way that mothers’ verbal interaction style would influence their child’s fluency.