Ch. 4: Advanced Characteristics of Stuttering

Differences between children and adult stuttering appear in the following:

• proportions of certain disfluency types

• loci of stuttering (where stuttering occurs in an utterance)

• affective reactions

What age group experiences more negative reactions about their stuttering from same age peers?

older children

younger kids are not teased around 3

What age group has an increased ability to anticipate stuttering events

older children because they have the cognitive abilities to in comparison to younger children

Younger children also have had little time talking so they had little tie stuttering=limited anticipation of stuttering

What is a disfluency?

a disruption in the forward flow of speech present in everyone's speech (PWS and NFS)

are stuttering and disfluency the same thing?

NO

what is stuttering?

refers to either stuttering like disfluencies or the complex disorder as a whole.

part-word repetitions

a-ai; f-five; ba-baby

Single-syllable word repetitions

but-but; and-and

Multiple-syllable word repetitions

because-because (polysyllabic word repetition)

Phrase repetitions

I was - I was going; Once upon - once upon

Prolonged sounds

a>>>>ai like to go; S>>>>ometimes

Blocks & broken words

C (silence)--ake; The ta (silence)--able

Tense pause

I like to (silence)------go home (between words)

Interjections

um; uh; er; hmmm

Revisions

I like – I want this ball (same thought)

Incomplete utterance

The baby – let’s do…(change in thought)

Types of NFS (other) disfluencies

• interjections

• multi syllable word and phrase repetition

• revision

• incomplete utterance

Stuttering-like dysfluencies

• part-word repetition

• single-syllable word repetition

• dysrhythmic phonation (sound prolongations and blocks)

Why the term:Stuttering Like Disfluencies?

1. SLD’s are much more typical and much more frequent in the speech of PWS

2.Listeners show a strong inclination to perceive these disfluencies as “stuttering.”

Disfluency frequency

refers to the frequency of occurrence of each of the disfluencies and their total count

How is frequency of disfluencies measured?

1. number of disfluencies per 100 syllables or words←clinically

2. percent syllables or words that contain disfluencies

Fluency (more fluenct) inducing conditions/situational factors

• speaking alone

• speaking to animals or babies

• speaking in the presence of high level noise

• talking in rhythm as paced by a metronome

• talking in unison

• whispering

non-fluency (less fluent) inducing conditions/situational factors

• time pressure

• language complexity

• the size of audience

• speaking to a specific person

• speaking to a person of the opposite sex

• a specific physical environment

this takes into account how long the disfluency is from beginning to end

disfluency duration

Average disfluency time for adults and preschool children

1 second

Who experiences more clustered disfluencies, NFC or CWS?

CWS

You can measure duration in terms of …

repetition units/interation OR time

what is an indication of severity?

the longer the duration the more severe the stuttering

tendency of disfluent speech to occur in clusters of two or more on the same word or adjacent words

clusters

who tends to show more clustered disfluencies than NFC

young CWS

Only two studies support the presence of _______ in adults – it is also possible that adults exhibit this disfleuncy

disfluency clusters

Duration of a sound prolongation tends to increase or decrease with age in PWS? What else has the same trend?

Increase, as you age the duration of a sound prolongation last longer

repetition units

are all physical concomitants/secondary characteristics easily observed?

Recall that some are easily observed, and some are NOT.

• Someone curling their toes inside their shoes when they stutter.

• Someone tapping their finger inside their pocket out of sight.

Why are physical concomitants called secondary characteristics?

Because they are NOT necessary to produce speech sounds

You do not NEED to move your head or blink your eyes to produce speech sounds

Examples of physical concomitants

• head jerks

• eye closed; squinting

• facial contortions

• teeth grinding

• throat tightened

• hand/arm movements

As stuttering persists, there can be vocal changes such as …

increases in pitch, monotone voice, vocal fry and strained voice are possible

PWS exhibit an overall lower _____ rate and ______ rate then NFS.

speaking and articulatory

Emotional Reactions Vary in Time Relative to the Stuttering Event: prior to stuttering

fear, dread, anxiety, panic

Emotional Reactions Vary in Time Relative to the Stuttering Event: during stuttering

blankness, being trapped, panic, frustration

Emotional Reactions Vary in Time Relative to the Stuttering Event: after stuttering

shame, humiliation, anger, resentment

What 3 factors influence emotional reactions for older children

1. child's sensitivity to stuttering (awareness)

2. other's reactions to stuttering

3. the child's reaction to others (how child reacts to others reactions of stuttering)

Emotional reaction appear AFTER the child …

is aware that stuttering is something unpleasant to him/her

what two disorders are most common with PWS and general population?

phonology and language disorders

Phenomena of Advances Stuttering

1. Adaptation

2. Consistency

3. Adjacency

4. Expectancy

Adaptation effect (reading)

• 50% decline in stuttering moments by the 5th reading

• greatest reduction in stuttering moments by the 2nd reading

• both frequency and severity decline

• improvement is only TEMPORARY

• not all clients show the effect

stuttering tends to occur on words previously stuttered

Consistency

stuttering tends to occur on words near those previously stuttered

Adjacency

stuttering tends to occur on words the speaker predicts will be stuttered

Expectancy

Brown's 4 Factors of Stuttering Loci (where stuttering events tend to occur on for adults)

1. words beginning with consonants rather than vowels

2. long words rather than short words

3. contents (nouns/verbs) words rather than function (preposition/articles)

4. sentence-initial (early) words rather than later words

5. Child stuttering events tend to have a different more random pattern than what is seen for adults

Conditions that Diminish Stuttering in manner of talking

• Singing

• In rhythm (e.g., to a metronome beat)

• In a monotone

• Imitating a dialect

• Whispering

• Speaking slowly

Conditions that Diminish Stuttering in context of talking

• To an animal

• To an infant

• In unison

• With DAF

• With masking noise

• With response contingent stimuli

Does stuttering occur more with consonant words or vowels?

Consonants

Does stuttering occur more with long words or short words?

Long

Does stuttering occur more with contents words or function words?

content words

Does stuttering occur with words at the beginning of the sentence or later in the sentence?

Early on (sentence-initial)