SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “STUTTERING”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Stutter-free and stutter-filled speech signals and their role in stuttering amelioration for English speaking adults.

This study examined the power of an exogenously generated stuttered speech signal on stuttering frequency when compared to an exogenously generated normal speech signal. In addition, we examined the specific components of the second speech signal, which might be responsible for the inducement of fluency in people who stutter. Eight males and two females who stuttered participated in this study. Experiment I involved meaningful speech: normal continuous speech, normal interrupted speech, stuttered continuous speech, and stuttered interrupted speech, whereas Experiment II involved vowels and consonants: /a/, /a-i-u/, /s/, /s-sh-f/. The results indicated that stuttered and normal speech signals were equally effective in reducing stuttering frequency. Further, the vowels were more powerful than consonants in inducing fluency for people who stutter. It is suggested that acoustic manifestations of stuttering, rather than a problem, may be a natural compensatory mechanism to bypass or inhibit the 'involuntary block' at the neural level.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Disfluency clusters of children who stutter: relation of stutterings to self-repairs.

The purpose of this study was to account for the frequency, type, and possible origins of speech disfluency clusters in the spontaneous speech of 3- to 6-year-old children, 30 who stutter and 30 who do not stutter. On the basis of the Covert Repair Hypothesis (Postma & Kolk, 1993), which suggests that stutterings are the by-products of self-repairs or self-corrections of speech errors, three hypotheses were tested in attempts to account for the frequency and location of stutterings within speech disfluency clusters. Sequences of various types of speech disfluencies in utterances containing disfluency clusters were collected from audio/videotaped conversations between each of these 60 children and their mothers. Three types of speech disfluencies--overt self-repairs, covert self-repairs, and within-word disfluencies ("stutterings")--and the disfluency clusters they comprised, were identified and analyzed frame-by-frame. Results indicated that children who stutter produced significantly more stuttering-stuttering clusters (e.g., "I-I-I w-w-want ..." or "w-w-waaaant") and that, although children who do not stutter occasionally produced stutterings, they never produced stuttering-stuttering clusters. Furthermore, children who stutter produced significantly more stuttering-repair clusters, whereas children who do not stutter produced significantly more repair-repair clusters. Within the disfluency clusters of children who do not stutter, stutterings were more likely to follow an overt self-repair produced at a relatively fast speaking rate (6.6 sylls/sec). Findings are taken to suggest that stuttering-stuttering clusters may help differentiate between children who do and do not stutter, and that speech errors, self-repairs, and speech disfluencies influence one another within and between adjacent sounds, syllables, and words in what appears to be a nonhappenstance and theoretically important fashion.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Stuttering: neuropsychiatric features measured by content analysis of speech and the effect of risperidone on stuttering severity.

Positron-emission tomographic (PET) studies and genetic research of stuttering have recently revealed underlying cerebral neurobiologic contributing factors in this disorder. We aimed to assess whether cognitive impairment and other neuropsychiatric dimensions could be detected through computerized content analysis of short samples of speech from stutterers, and whether administration of risperidone in a double-blind placebo-controlled study could decrease the severity of stuttering, as well as any of the neuropsychiatric features of these stutterers. A group of 21 stutterers with the developmental form of stuttering, an onset before age of 6 years, aged 20 to 74 years, and who were otherwise free of major medical or psychiatric problems, initially gave a 5-minute tape-recorded speech sample in response to purposely ambiguous instructions to talk about any interesting or dramatic life experiences. Then, half of these subjects (n = 10) were randomly selected to receive 6 weeks of risperidone treatment up to 2.0 mg/d and the other half (n = 11) were administered a placebo. Both groups of subjects gave a second verbal sample after 6 weeks of treatment. Significantly elevated cognitive impairment and social alienation-personal disorganization scores, derived from the computerized content of the initial 5-minute speech samples, were found. After 6 weeks, the risperidone group improved significantly on a measure of severity of stuttering but did not improve on the percentage of time spent stuttering. The placebo group did not improve on either measure of stuttering. The psychopathological processes of subjects who received risperidone treatment, including those with elevated cognitive impairment and social alienation-personal disorganization, did not change significantly. However, stutterers who had lower scores on verbal content analysis-derived shame anxiety, guilt anxiety, or hostility inward measures improved significantly more with risperidone than stutterers with higher scores on these measures. The findings of elevated cognitive impairment and social alienation-personal disorganization scores of adult stutterers with the early developmental form of stuttering are consistent with the neurobiologic abnormalities found in PET-scan and genetic research involving stutterers. Risperidone (< or =2.0 mg/d) can reduce the severity of stuttering while not significantly affecting the magnitude of neuropsychiatric dimensions such as cognitive impairment or social alienation-personal disorganization. The less the inward shame, guilt, or hostility of the stutterers, the better the beneficial effect of risperidone on the severity of stuttering.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

F2 transitions during sound/syllable repetitions of children who stutter and predictions of stuttering chronicity.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between second formant (F2) transitions during the sound/syllable repetitions (SSRs) of young children who stutter and their predicted chronicity of stuttering. Subjects were 13 youngsters who stutter, who were divided into two groups based on their predicted chronicity of stuttering as measured by the Stuttering Prediction Instrument (SPI; Riley, 1984): a high-risk group, consisting of 7 boys (mean age = 50.6 months), and a low-risk group, consisting of 5 boys and 1 girl (mean age = 48.5 months). Each child was audio/videotape-recorded during a 30-minute conversational interaction with his or her mother. Ten SSRs per child were acoustically analyzed to identify differences in F2 transitions between the repeated (stuttered) and fluent (nonstuttered) portions of the words. Present findings are consistent with those of Stromsta (1965, 1986), who reported that children who stutter produce F2 transitions during stuttering that are nonmeasurable or missing or that differ in direction of movement from fluent transitions. However, there were no significant between-group differences in the frequency of occurrence of these "abnormal" F2 transitions, findings that are apparently inconsistent with Stromsta's results. The remaining measurable F2 transitions showed no significant between-group differences in the mean differences between stuttered and fluent F2 transitions for onset and offset frequencies, transition extents, and transition rates. Within both groups, significant positive correlations were found between stuttered and fluent F2 transitions for all acoustic measures except for transition durations, which were not significantly correlated for either high-risk or low-risk subjects. Within the low-risk group, stuttered F2 transitions were typically shorter than fluent transitions. Findings were taken to suggest that some elements of sound or segment prolongation may be present within the SSRs of children who stutter and who are considered to be at high risk for continuing to stutter, indicating that further study of selected aspects of F2 transitions during stuttering may provide useful clinical information for predicting the likelihood that a child will continue to stutter.

Child↗

PubMed1978

The effects of a contingent light-flash on stuttering and attention to stuttering.

The hypothesis that a light-flash made contingent on stuttering would reduce stuttering to the extent that it called subjects' attention to their stuttering responses was investigated with two adult female stutterers. Attention to stuttering was measured by asking subjects to depress a switch each time they detected a stuttering in their speech. For one subject, the contingent light produced a marked reduction in stuttering but had no effect on switch-pressing. For the other subject, the light had little effect on stuttering but resulted in an increase in switch-pressing. For both subjects, reductions in stuttering occurred when they were asked to note their stutterings by pressing the switch. The results suggested that the effect of the light on stuttering was not due to its role in calling attention to stuttering.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Life experiences of people who stutter, and the perceived impact of stuttering on quality of life: personal accounts of South African individuals.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of the study was to investigate the life experiences of a group of South African adults who stutter and the impact of stuttering on their quality of life. Participants were 16 adults with a mean age of 28.9 and ranging from 20 to 59 years. Methods involved individual interviews designed to explore the life domains of education; social life; employment; speech therapy; family and marital life; and identity, beliefs and emotional issues. Main findings of the study indicated that the majority of participants perceived their stuttering to have impacted on their academic performance at school, and relationships with teachers and classmates. Although their stuttering was not perceived to adversely influence their ability to establish friendships, people generally reacted negatively to their stuttering. Many felt that their stuttering did not have an adverse effect on their choice of occupation, ability to obtain work, and relationships with managers and co-workers, although it was perceived to influence their work performance and hamper their chances for promotion. Although the majority viewed their speech therapy experiences as being negative; more than half the sample believed that speech therapy had, nevertheless exerted a positive effect on their quality of life. Overall, stuttering did not appear to have influenced participants' family and marital life. Most participants felt that stuttering had affected their self-esteem and self-image, and had evoked strong emotions within them. Findings are taken to suggest the need to incorporate subjective feelings about stuttering into the clinical practice of speech-language therapy; to provide information and coping strategies for teachers and employers; and for further research. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: After completing this activity, the reader will be able to: (1) describe and explain the perceived impact of stuttering on quality of life in terms of education; social life; employment; speech therapy; family and marital life; and identity, beliefs and emotional issues; (2) to interpret and utilize the subjective meanings that individuals attach to their stuttering to improve stuttering treatment, counseling and research.

Achievement↗

PubMed1983

Recovery and persistence of stuttering among relatives of stutterers.

Recovery and persistence of stuttering were examined in the first-degree relatives of a large group of adult persistent stutters. The percentage of recovered individuals reported in these families supports the hypothesis that recovered and persistent stuttering are not independent disorders. Sex and type of relative were significant variables in the distributions of recovery and persistence of stuttering. Handedness in male subjects and birth order did not distinguish between recovered and persistent stutterers. Female recovered stutterers had significantly earlier ages of stuttering onset than the other groups (male recovered stutterers and male and female persistent stutterers). Female recovered stutterers also tended to recover earlier than male recovered stutterers, and the durations of stuttering symptoms were similar in both sexes.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Young stutterers' nonspeech behaviors during stuttering.

The purpose of this study was to assess the nonspeech behaviors associated with young stutterers' stuttering and normally fluent children's comparable fluent utterances. Subjects were 28 boys and 2 girls who stutter (mean age = 54 months) and 28 boys and 2 girls who do not stutter (mean age = 54 months). Each child and his or her mother were audio-video recorded during a loosely structured, 30-min conversation. Sixty-six different nonspeech behaviors associated with 10 randomly selected stutterings per stutterer and 10 comparable fluent utterances per normally fluent child were assessed by means of frame-by-frame analysis of the audio-video recordings. Results indicate that (a) young stutterers produce significantly more nonspeech behaviors during stuttered words than do normally fluent children during comparable fluent words, (b) young stutters produce significantly more head turns left, blinks, and upper lip raising during stuttered words than do normally fluent children during comparable fluent words, and (c) talker group membership could be significantly determined on the basis of certain types of nonspeech behaviors despite considerable overlap in frequency and type of nonspeech behavior between the two talker groups. Findings suggest that children can be classified as stutterers on the basis of their nonspeech behaviors and that these behaviors may reflect a variety of cognitive, emotional, linguistic, and physical events associated with childhood stuttering.

Child Behavior↗

PubMed2000

Is overt stuttered speech a prerequisite for the neural activations associated with chronic developmental stuttering?

Four adult right-handed chronic stutterers and four age-matched controls completed H(2)(15)O PET scans involving overt and imagined oral reading tasks. During overt stuttered speech prominent activations occurred in SMA (medial), BA 46 (right), anterior insula (bilateral), and cerebellum (bilateral) plus deactivations in right A2 (BA 21/22). These activations and deactivations also occurred when the same stutterers imagined they were stuttering. Some parietal regions were significantly activated during imagined stuttering, but not during overt stuttering. Most regional activations changed in the same direction when overt stuttering ceased (during chorus reading) and when subjects imagined that they were not stuttering (also during chorus reading). Controls displayed fewer similarities between regional activations and deactivations during actual and imagined oral reading. Thus overt stuttering appears not to be a prerequisite for the prominent regional activations and deactivations associated with stuttering.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

Phonetic influences on stuttering in monolingual and bilingual stutterers.

The difficulty stutterers might have with individual sounds was investigated with respect to two modes of speaking (oral reading versus spontaneous speech) and two languages (English versus Kannada). Ten monolingual and ten bilingual stutterers read 16 lists of words (8 in each language). Analysis of stuttering was made with respect to a three-way classification of sounds (vowels, voiceless consonants, and voiced consonants) as well as an eight-way classification (short vowels, long vowels, voiceless stops, voiceless fricatives, voiced stops, voiced fricatives, nasals, and semivowels). Analysis was made with respect to both word-initial and total stuttering. The results indicated that both monolingual and bilingual stutterers were more dysfluent on voiceless consonants and especially on voiceless fricatives, when total stuttering was considered. Results of the analysis of word-initial stuttering on an eight-way classification of sounds showed that the bilingual stutterers stuttered more on the nasal sounds. The results of the bilingual comparison indicated the possibility that the phonetic influences on stuttering might be dependent on the number of languages spoken by the subjects as well as the specific language in which the effects were observed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Acknowledgment and severity of stuttering as factors influencing nonstutterers' perceptions of stutterers.

The purpose of this study was to determine (a) if nonstutterers prefer to interact with mild and severe stutterers who acknowledge their stuttering and (b) if nonstutterers' perceptions of mild and severe stutterers' intelligence, personality, and appearance are altered as a function of stutterers' acknowledgment of their stuttering. Acknowledgment and nonacknowledgment videotapes of two mild and two severe male stutterers were made during interview situations. Eighty-four female subjects examined the interview tapes and were then instructed to answer questions and complete adjective scales. Findings indicate that significant numbers of female nonstutterers prefer to interact with severe stutterers who acknowledged their stuttering. Mild and severe stutterers who acknowledged their stuttering receive more favorable ratings on intelligence, personality, and appearance.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1989

The relationship of stuttering severity and treatment length to temporal measures of stutterers' perceptually fluent speech.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between stuttering severity and treatment length to temporal measures of stutterers' perceptually fluent speech. Seventeen adult stutterers (4 mild, 8 moderate, and 5 severe) were divided into two treatment categories. One group with limited exposure to treatment (n = 7) consisted of stutterers who had completed 0-10 hr of treatment. Another group with an extensive period of treatment (n = 10) consisted of stutterers who had completed 47-212 hr of treatment. All subjects were asked to repeat a simple phrase and read a prose passage. Spectrographic measures of the stutterers' voice onset times, vowel, consonant, and phrase durations were obtained from perceptibly fluent productions of the isolated phrase and from a phrase extracted from the oral reading. Results showed that there were no significant differences among stuttering severity groups or the two groups with different lengths of treatment. These results suggest that changes in temporal measures of stutterers' fluency might occur through the process of treatment, but those changes are not related to stuttering severity or length of treatment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1978

The effects on stuttering of self-recording the frequency of stuttering or the word "the".

The effect of self-recording the frequency of stuttering or the word "the" during spontaneous speech by three adult stutterers was assessed within a single-subject experimental design. The effect of these procedures on stuttering frequency, use of the word "the," and speech rate differed for each subject. Subject 1 showed no systematic change in stuttering and an initial increase in "the" responses. Subject 2 reduced stuttering to almost zero during self-recording conditions. Subject 3 increased stuttering during self-recording stuttering and self-recording "the" conditions. These results, which indicated that self-recording procedures have a variety of effects on the stuttering behavior of different individuals, are not consistent with previous studies that have shown only reductions in stuttering during self-recording conditions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Sociodynamic relationships between children who stutter and their non-stuttering classmates.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has indicated that children who stutter are more likely to be bullied and to hold a lower social position than their peers who do not stutter. However, the majority of this research has used data from respondents who were in the educational system more than 20 years ago. The current policy on integration of children with severe disabilities into mainstream education and the increased awareness of bullying in schools would indicate that attitudes toward children who stutter might have changed in the intervening period. METHOD: The study uses a sociometric scale (adapted from Coie, Dodge, & Coppotelli, 1982) to assess children who stutter in classroom groups with fluent peers. The peer relationships between 16 children who stutter and their classmates (403 children in total) were examined. RESULTS: Children who stutter were rejected significantly more often than were their peers and were significantly less likely to be popular. When compared to children who do not stutter, the children who stutter were less likely to be nominated as 'leaders' and were more likely to be nominated to the 'bullied' and 'seeks help' categories. CONCLUSIONS: The changes in integration policy and the implementation of anti-bullying policies in many schools appear to have made little impact on the social status of children who stutter. The incidence of bullying and rejection reported in this study has implications for schools and clinicians.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The influence of family history of stuttering on the onset of stuttering in young children.

Content analysis was undertaken of the case records of 61 children who stuttered who were attending a specialist centre for children who stutter. The subjects were divided into two groups, on the basis of family history of stuttering. Positive family histories of stuttering were reported for 44 children and 17 had negative family histories. The two groups were compared in terms of gender ratios, the age of onset and the type of onset (gradual vs. sudden) of stuttering. Those with positive family histories began stuttering earlier than those with no reported family history of stuttering, though this difference was not statistically significant. The type of onset of stuttering was not related to the presence or absence of a family history of stuttering. The findings are discussed in terms of the practicability of this method of data collection.

Age Distribution↗

PubMed2003

Stereotypes towards stuttering for those who have never had direct contact with people who stutter: a randomized and stratified study.

Research suggests that many people hold pervasive negative stereotypes towards persons who stutter and that to date, success in changing these attitudes has been limited. However, few studies have selected people who had not had direct contact with a person who stutters or employed a true randomized and stratified selection of people from the community to assess attitudes towards stuttering. To assess stereotypes, a randomized and stratified investigation was conducted by telephone interview to assess the type of stereotypes 502 people from households in the state of New South Wales. Australia have about stuttering. Consenting persons were given a brief introduction to the research and a description of stuttering. Then they were asked if they or any person living in their household stuttered or whether they knew or had ever met any one who stuttered. If answers were no, they were asked to participate. If they answered yes to either question they were thanked and not asked to participate. Analysis showed that a large number believe persons who stutter are shy, self-conscious, anxious people who lack confidence. In contrast, many also believe they would not be embarrassed talking to someone who stutters, that they have average or above average intelligence, and are capable of holding responsible work-related positions. While this research yields a mixture of negative and positive community stereotypes, a significant portion of society continue to show little knowledge of the causes of the disorder.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Voluntary stuttering suppresses true stuttering: a window on the speech perception-production link.

In accord with a proposed innate link between speech perception and production (e.g., motor theory), this study provides compelling evidence for the inhibition of stuttering events in people who stutter prior to the initiation of the intended speech act, via both the perception and the production of speech gestures. Stuttering frequency during reading was reduced in 10 adults who stutter by approximately 40% in three of four experimental conditions: (1) following passive audiovisual presentation (i.e., viewing and hearing) of another person producing pseudostuttering (stutter-like syllabic repetitions) and following active shadowing of both (2) pseudostuttered and (3) fluent speech. Stuttering was not inhibited during reading following passive audiovisual presentation of fluent speech. Syllabic repetitions can inhibit stuttering both when produced and when perceived, and we suggest that these elementary stuttering forms may serve as compensatory speech gestures for releasing involuntary stuttering blocks by engaging mirror neuronal systems that are predisposed for fluent gestural imitation.

Adult↗

PubMed1981

Stuttering identification: standard definition and moment of stuttering.

Fifteen-second samples of speech were recorded from 20 adult stutterers. The samples were played to two groups (I and NI) of unsophisticated observers. The 18 observers in the NI Group were instructed to underline any word that was stuttered. The 18 observers in the I Group also were instructed to underline stuttered words, but these observers were given a "standard definition" of stuttering (Wingate, 1964); repetition of a sound, syllable, or one-syllable word; silent or audible prolongation; or both. On the average, observers who were given a definition of stuttering marked more words as stuttered than observers who were told only to mark stutterings. In addition, the observers for whom stuttering was defined also displayed significantly more variability in terms of the average number of words underlined. Both interobserver and intraobserver agreement were significantly higher for the NI Group than the I Group observers. The data from this and other identification studies were used to support the suggestion that the identification of stuttering is a threshold phenomenon.

Adult↗