Biomedical subjects

Kenneth J Logan

Publications and source records attributed to Kenneth J Logan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

The effect of syntactic structure upon speech initiation times of stuttering and nonstuttering speakers.

UNLABELLED: Past research has shown that adults who stutter tend to be slower than adults who do not stutter at initiating various speech-like movements, nonsense syllables, words, short phrases, and simple sentences. The present study sought to extend this research by examining the effect that syntactic structure has upon stutterers' and nonstutterers' ability to initiate sentences. Eleven persons who stutter (mean age=22.2 years) and 11 nonstuttering controls (mean age=23.3 years) read, rehearsed, and then reproduced a series of 96 sentences within a simple reaction time paradigm. The sentences were presented in four blocks of 24 sentences, and each block contained one version of each of the 24 base sentences. Versions of the base sentences varied, from simple to complex, along four levels of syntactic complexity. Results indicated that speech initiation times (SITs) were significantly longer for participants who stutter than they were for nonstuttering controls for three of the four sentence types. There was no significant difference in SITs across the four sentence types for either group. Among the stuttering participants, there was no significant correlation between stuttering severity and overall initiation time for the sentences. Consistent with other studies, the present findings suggest that persons who stutter are slower than persons who do not stutter at planning and/or initiating motor movements associated with speech production. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to (1). describe how persons who stutter typically perform during various reaction time tasks, (2). explain the rationale for examining the effect of syntactic complexity upon speech initiation time, (3). discuss how the speech initiation times of persons who stutter compare to those of persons who do not stutter during the production of various types of sentences, (4). identify future research needs in this area.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Language and fluency characteristics of preschoolers' multiple-utterance conversational turns.

The present study examined language and fluency characteristics of single-utterance (SU) and multiple-utterance (MU) conversational turns produced by 15 preschoolers who stutter and 15 age- and sex-matched preschoolers who do not stutter. Participants conversed with a parent in a play seating. Each interaction was videotaped and the participants' resultant utterances were transcribed and analyzed. Results indicated that the children's utterances from MU-turns typically served assertive functions and were significantly longer and more linguistically complex than their utterances from SU-turns. Neither group showed a significant difference in disfluency rate for length-matched utterances from MU- and SU-turns. Similarly, there were no significant between-group differences in speaking-turn length or frequency of MU-turns. Although present findings do not support the hypothesis that MU-turns directly affect children's fluency, they do suggest that MU-turns are demanding for youngsters because they evoke relatively long and complex utterances. As such, conversational turn length seems to be an important variable for clinicians to consider when assessing and treating children who stutter.

Child Language↗

PubMed2003

Developing intervention programs for children with stuttering and concomitant impairments.

School-aged children who stutter often present concomitant impairments in articulation and language that can complicate treatment. In this article, a framework is offered for designing intervention programs for such children. It is stressed that clinicians must first identify clinical priorities by determining the severity of the impairments, their impact on daily activities, others' reactions to the impairments, and the likelihood of unassisted recovery. Several potential treatment models are presented, as are general treatment principles and specific treatment strategies for three profiles of children who stutter. Suggestions are also provided for including parents and teachers in the intervention plan.

Articulation Disorders↗

PubMed2002

Evaluating rate, accuracy, and fluency of young children's diadochokinetic productions: a preliminary investigation.

UNLABELLED: Diadochokinetic (DDK) rates are commonly assessed in children with speech-language disorders, even though the implications of fast or slow DDK rates are not clear. This study explored the possibility that the accuracy and fluency of DDK productions may provide a meaningful supplement to traditional measures of DDK rate. Participants were 15 boys, age 3-7, with normal speech-language development, who were asked to produce "puh-tuh-kuh" or "pattycake" in a standard DDK task. Analyses revealed that normally developing children produce frequent articulation errors but few disfluencies during DDK tasks. Errors and disfluencies did not affect DDK rate, suggesting that the rate of DDKs may be a relatively insensitive measure of children's speaking abilities. Although an expected correlation was found between age and overall DDK rate, no correlations were found between age and the frequency of articulation errors or speech disfluencies. Findings suggest that measures of DDK accuracy and fluency may provide information about children's speech development that is independent of age and may be more closely related to oral motor development than rate. Overall, results underscore concerns with the interpretation of DDK rate and highlight ways that rate measures might be supplemented with measurement of accuracy and fluency in the evaluation of children's speaking abilities. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about a technique that may facilitate the evaluation of young children's oral DDK abilities. The reader will learn about the frequency and type of errors children produce on DDKs and how this information can be used in the assessment of children's oral motor abilities.

Apraxias↗