Abstract
PurposeThe goals of the present study were to investigate whether (1) the speech disfluencies of preschool-age children are normally distributed; (2) preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) differ in terms of non-stuttered disfluencies; (3) age, gender, and speech-language ability affect the number and type of disfluencies children produce; and (4) parents’ expressed concern that their child stutters is associated with examiners’ judgments of stuttered disfluency. MethodFour hundred and seventy two children participated, of which 228 were CWS (56 girls), and 244 CWNS (119 girls). Participants provided conversational speech samples that were analyzed for frequency of occurrence of (a) stuttered disfluencies, (b) non-stuttered disfluencies, and (c) total disfluencies. ResultsResults indicated that the underlying distributions of preschool-age children's stuttered and non-stuttered disfluency counts followed a negative binomial distribution (i.e., were not normal), with more children “piling up” at the low end [none or few disfluencies] and fewer children scoring in the upper [more severe stuttering] end of the distribution. Findings also indicated that non-stuttered disfluencies significantly predicted CWS/CWNS talker group classification, information that may be helpful to augment, but not supplant, talker group classification criteria based on stuttered disfluencies. Moreover, expressed parental concern about stuttering was strongly associated with frequency of stuttered disfluencies. ConclusionFindings suggest that the entirety of preschool-age CWS’ speech disfluencies – non-stuttered as well as stuttered – differs from that of their CWNS peers and that because these disfluencies are not normally distributed statistical analyses assuming normality of distribution are not the most appropriate means to assess these differences. In addition, certain “third-order” variables (e.g., gender) appear to impact frequency of children's disfluencies and expressed parental concerns about stuttering are meaningfully related to examiners’ judgments of stuttered disfluencies.Learning outcomes: The reader will recognize differences in speech disfluencies of preschool-age children who do and do not stutter. The reader will recognize whether age, gender and speech-language ability affect the number and type of disfluencies children produce. The reader will describe whether parental concern about stuttering is associated with examiners’ judgments of stuttering.
Highlights
During the late 1950s, Johnson et al (1959) provided normative data regarding the speech disfluencies of children who do and do not stutter
The nature of the samples differed, this accumulated dataset represents one of the largest repositories of information presently available regarding the speech disfluencies of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS)
Influence of age on preschoolers’ speech disfluencies—In partial support of the third hypothesis, we found that age was associated with the frequency of non-stuttered disfluencies, such that older preschool-age children produced more non-stuttered disfluencies
Summary
During the late 1950s, Johnson et al (1959) provided normative data regarding the speech disfluencies of children who do and do not stutter. Several others based on similar recordings of speakers of English (e.g., Ambrose & Yairi, 1999; Pellowski & Conture, 2002; Yaruss, LaSalle, & Conture, 1998) and speakers of other languages (e.g., Boey, Wuyts, Van de Heyning, Bodt, & Heylen, 2007; Carlo & Watson, 2003; Martins & Andrade, 2008; Natke, Sandrieser, Pietrowsky, & Kalveram, 2006), have contributed data to the foundation laid down by Johnson and colleagues in the 1950s Combined, these empirical investigations, studied 908 children who stutter (CWS) and 258 children who do not stutter (CWNS). Fourth, is the issue of whether there is an association between parents/caregivers’ expressed reports of concern that
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