Mother and child speaking rates and utterance lengths in adjacent fluent utterances: Preliminary observations

Abstract

Speech-Language Pathologists often recommend that parents of children who stutter reduce their own speaking rates and utterance lengths in an apparent attempt to improve their children's speech fluency; however, it is not clear why such changes in parents' speech reduce children's stuttering. One possibility, given findings that children appear to stutter less when they speak more slowly or use shorter utterances, is that the changes in parents' speaking rates and utterance lengths may lead to similar changes in children's speech, which, in turn, facilitate the children's fluency. The purpose of this study was to begin exploring this possibility by examining relationships between parents' and children's speaking rates and utterance lengths in immediately adjacent, perceptibly fluent utterances. Subjects were 20 mother-child dyads, including 10 boys who stutter (mean age = 58.5 months; range = 48 to 70 months) and 10 boys who do not stutter (mean age = 57.0 months; range = 48 to 67 months). No significant differences were found between groups in either mothers' or children's speaking rates or utterance lengths or in children's response time latencies, nor were any significant relationships found among these variables. However, a significant positive correlation was found between children's stuttering severity and the difference between mother and child speaking rates. Results indicate that improvements in children's stuttering that accompany reductions in parents' speaking rates and utterance lengths may be related to factors other than concomitant reductions in children's absolute speaking rates and utterance lengths, for example, a reduction in the difference between parent and child speaking rates.