[SLP10415] Normal Fluency and Development of Stuttering

Core behaviors

• Describe the basic speech behaviors of stuttering: repetitions, prolongations and blocks

• Behaviors that seem involuntary to the person who stutters, as if out of their control

Secondary behaviors

• A speaker's reactions to his or her repetitions, prolongations, and blocks, in an attempt to end them quickly or avoid them altogether 

• These reactions may begin as random struggle but soon turn into well-learned patterns

• Can be divided into two broad classes: escape and avoidance behaviors

Feelings and attitudes

• Feelings may precipitate stutters, just as stutters may create feelings

• Attitudes are feelings that has become a pervasive part of a person’s beliefs

• For every developmental stage, there are changes in terms of behaviors

• Feelings may precipitate stutters, just as stutters create feelings 

Underlying processes

Repetitions

Prolongations

Blocks

Escape behaviors

Feelings

Attitudes

Normal Disfluency, Borderline Stuttering, Beginning Stuttering, Intermediate Stuttering, Advanced Stuttering

Developmental Levels of Stuttering

Normal Disfluency