Network


Latest external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.

Hotspot


Dive into the research topics where Courtney T. Byrd is active.

Publication


Featured researches published by Courtney T. Byrd.


Journal of Communication Disorders | 2011

Speaking Rate Characteristics of Elementary-School-Aged Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter.

Kenneth J. Logan; Courtney T. Byrd; Elizabeth M. Mazzocchi; Ronald B. Gillam

PURPOSE To compare articulation and speech rates of school-aged children who do and do not stutter across sentence priming, structured conversation, and narration tasks and to determine factors that predict childrens speech and articulation rates. METHOD 34 children who stutter (CWS) and 34 age- and gender-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS) were divided into younger (M age=6;10) and older (M age=9;6) subgroups. Speech samples were elicited using the Modeled Sentences, Structured Conversation, and Narration tasks from an experimental version of the Test of Childhood Stuttering (Gillam, Logan, & Pearson, 2009). Speech rates (based on both fluent and disfluent utterances), articulation rates (based on only fluent utterances), disfluency frequency, and utterance length were compared across groups and tasks. RESULTS CWNS had faster speech rates than CWS. Older children had faster speech rates than younger children during Modeled Sentences, and their Modeled Sentences speech rates were faster than their Structured Conversation and Narration speech rates. Disfluency frequency predicted speech rate better than age or utterance length for CWS and CWNS. Speech rate was negatively correlated with stuttering severity for CWS. Articulation rates for CWNS and CWS were not significantly different; however, older children had faster articulation rates than younger children, and articulation rates for both age groups were fastest during Modeled Sentences. CONCLUSIONS Results provide age-based reference data for the speech and articulation rates of school-aged CWS and CWNS on three TOCS tasks and offer insight into the relative contributions of age, disfluency frequency, and utterance length to childrens rate performance. LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this paper readers should be able to: (1) summarize the main findings from past studies of childrens speech rate and articulation rate; (2) describe how school-aged children who stutter compare to age-matched children who do not stutter with regard to speech rate and articulation rate; (3) explain the extent to which age, speaking task, disfluency frequency, and utterance length affect childrens rate performance; (4) discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to rate measurement.


Journal of Fluency Disorders | 2012

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision in adults who do and do not stutter.

Courtney T. Byrd; Megann Vallely; Julie D. Anderson; Harvey M. Sussman

UNLABELLED The purpose of the present study was to explore the phonological working memory of adults who stutter through the use of a non-word repetition and a phoneme elision task. Participants were 14 adults who stutter (M=28 years) and 14 age/gender matched adults who do not stutter (M=28 years). For the non-word repetition task, the participants had to repeat a set of 12 non-words across four syllable lengths (2-, 3-, 4-, and 7-syllables) (N=48 total non-words). For the phoneme elision task, the participants repeated the same set of non-words at each syllable length, but with a designated target phoneme eliminated. Adults who stutter were significantly less accurate than adults who do not stutter in their initial attempts to produce the longest non-words (i.e., 7-syllable). Adults who stutter also required a significantly higher mean number of attempts to accurately produce 7-syllable non-words than adults who do not stutter. For the phoneme elision task, both groups demonstrated a significant reduction in accuracy as the non-words increased in length; however, there was no significant interaction between group and syllable length. Thus, although there appear to be advancements in the phonological working memory for adults who stutter relative to children who stutter, preliminary data from the present study suggest that the advancements may not be comparable to those demonstrated by adults who do not stutter. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES At the end of this activity the reader will be able to (a) summarize the nonword repetition data that have been published thus far with children and adults who stutter; (b) describe the subvocal rehearsal system, an aspect of the phonological working memory that is critical to nonword repetition accuracy; (c) employ an alternative means to explore the phonological working memory in adults who stutter, the phoneme elision task; and (d) discuss both phonological and motoric implications of deficits in the phonological working memory.


Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics | 2011

The Integrity of Anticipatory Coarticulation in Fluent and Non-Fluent Tokens of Adults Who Stutter.

Harvey M. Sussman; Courtney T. Byrd; Barry Guitar

This article analysed the acoustic structure of voiced stop + vowel sequences in a group of persons who stutter (PWS). This phonetic unit was chosen because successful production is highly dependent on the differential tweaking of right-to-left anticipatory coarticulation as a function of stop place. Thus, essential elements of both speech motor planning and execution can be parsimoniously assessed. Five adult PWS read three passages 3 times in a randomised order. These passages contained an overabundance of words beginning with initial [bV], [dV] and [gV] sequences. Digital audio and visual recordings were analysed to first identify fluent and stuttered target words, which were then spectrally analysed to yield locus equation (LE) regression plots. The slope of the LE regression function directly indexes the coarticulatory extent of the vowels influence on the preceding stop consonant. The PWS revealed LE parameters falling within the normal ranges based on previously documented data obtained from fluent speakers. Theoretical considerations of possible underlying factors responsible for stuttering disfluencies are discussed relevant to these findings.


Journal of Fluency Disorders | 2015

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision in adults who do and do not stutter: Vocal versus nonvocal performance differences

Courtney T. Byrd; Megann McGill; Evan Usler

PURPOSE The purpose of the present study was to enhance our understanding of phonological working memory in adults who stutter through the comparison of nonvocal versus vocal nonword repetition and phoneme elision task performance differences. METHOD For the vocal nonword repetition condition, participants repeated sets of 4- and 7-syllable nonwords (n=12 per set). For the nonvocal nonword repetition condition, participants silently identified each target nonword from a subsequent set of three nonwords. For the vocal phoneme elision condition, participants repeated nonwords with a target phoneme eliminated. For the nonvocal phoneme elision condition, participants silently identified the nonword with the designated target phoneme eliminated from a subsequent set of three nonwords. RESULTS Adults who stutter produced significantly fewer accurate initial productions of 7-syllable nonwords compared to adults who do not stutter. There were no talker group differences for the silent identification of nonwords, but both talker groups required significantly more mean number of attempts to accurately silently identify 7-syllable as compared to 4-syllable nonwords. For the vocal phoneme elision condition, adults who stutter were significantly less accurate than adults who do not stutter in their initial production and required a significantly higher mean number of attempts to accurately produce 7-syllable nonwords with a phoneme eliminated. This talker group difference was also significant for the nonvocal phoneme elision condition for both 4- and 7-syllable nonwords. CONCLUSION Present findings suggest phonological working memory may contribute to the difficulties persons who stutter have establishing and/or maintaining fluent speech. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES (a) Readers can describe the role of phonological working memory in planning for and execution of speech; (b) readers can describe two experimental tasks for exploring the phonological working memory: nonword repetition and phoneme elision; (c) readers can describe how the nonword repetition and phoneme elision skills of adults who stutter differ from their typically fluent peers.


Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools | 2015

The Disfluent Speech of Bilingual Spanish-English Children: Considerations for Differential Diagnosis of Stuttering.

Courtney T. Byrd; Lisa M. Bedore; Daniel Ramos

PURPOSE The primary purpose of this study was to describe the frequency and types of speech disfluencies that are produced by bilingual Spanish-English (SE) speaking children who do not stutter. The secondary purpose was to determine whether their disfluent speech is mediated by language dominance and/or language produced. METHOD Spanish and English narratives (a retell and a tell in each language) were elicited and analyzed relative to the frequency and types of speech disfluencies produced. These data were compared with the monolingual English-speaking guidelines for differential diagnosis of stuttering. RESULTS The mean frequency of stuttering-like speech behaviors in the bilingual SE participants ranged from 3% to 22%, exceeding the monolingual English standard of 3 per 100 words. There was no significant frequency difference in stuttering-like or non-stuttering-like speech disfluency produced relative to the childs language dominance. There was a significant difference relative to the language the child was speaking; all children produced significantly more stuttering-like speech disfluencies in Spanish than in English. CONCLUSION Results demonstrate that the disfluent speech of bilingual SE children should be carefully considered relative to the complex nature of bilingualism.


Journal of Fluency Disorders | 2013

Description of multilingual participants who stutter

Geoffrey A. Coalson; Elizabeth D. Peña; Courtney T. Byrd

PURPOSE The purpose of this review was to examine the descriptions of multilingual participants provided in stuttering literature to determine how frequently and consistently relevant factors of language profile are reported. METHOD We conducted a systematic search of published studies that included multilingual participants who stutter and reviewed the level of detail provided regarding language history, function, proficiency, stability, mode, accent, covert speech, and affective factors. RESULTS Twenty-three studies qualified to be included in the systematic review, consisting of 342 different multilingual stuttering participants. Of these 23 studies, the most frequently reported information included language proficiency (70%), history (56%), and function (43%). The specificity of the information used to define these factors was inconsistent. Affect was mentioned in 22% of studies, and language stability, mode, and accent information was included in less than 10% of the studies. CONCLUSIONS Results demonstrate that description of multilingual stuttering participants is inadequate and inconsistent. A recommended framework is provided for future studies to facilitate cross-study comparisons and enhance our ability to interpret the manifestation of stuttering in multilingual participants. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to: (a) summarize the current validity of cross-study comparisons in available research of multilingual participants who stutter; (b) describe the range of language factors to be included when providing descriptions of multilingual participants who stutter; (c) discuss the importance of consistency when describing language profiles of multilingual research participants.


Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics | 2012

The influence of phonetic complexity on stuttered speech

Geoffrey A. Coalson; Courtney T. Byrd; Barbara L. Davis

The primary purpose of this study was to re-examine the influence of phonetic complexity on stuttering in young children through the use of the Word Complexity Measure (WCM). Parent–child conversations were transcribed for 14 children who stutter (mean age = 3 years, 7 months; SD = 11.20 months). Lexical and linguistic factors were accounted for during the analysis. Results indicate that phonetic complexity, as measured by WCM, did not exhibit a significant influence on the likelihood of stuttering. Findings support previous data that suggest stuttering in preschool-age children does not appear significantly related to phonetic complexity of the production.


Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research | 2015

Metrical Encoding in Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter

Geoffrey A. Coalson; Courtney T. Byrd

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to explore metrical aspects of phonological encoding (i.e., stress and syllable boundary assignment) in adults who do and do not stutter (AWS and AWNS, respectively). METHOD Participants monitored nonwords for target sounds during silent phoneme monitoring tasks across two distinct experiments. For Experiment 1, the 22 participants (11 AWNS, 11 AWS) silently monitored target phonemes in nonwords with initial stress. For Experiment 2, an additional cohort of 22 participants (11 AWNS, 11 AWS) silently monitored phonemes in nonwords with noninitial stress. RESULTS In Experiment 1, AWNS and AWS silently monitored target phonemes in initial stress stimuli with similar speed and accuracy. In Experiment 2, AWS demonstrated a within-group effect that was not present for AWNS. They required additional time when monitoring phonemes immediately following syllable boundary assignment in stimuli with noninitial stress. There was also a between-groups effect, with AWS exhibiting significantly greater errors identifying phonemes in nonwords with noninitial stress than AWNS. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest metrical properties may affect the time course of phonological encoding in AWS in a manner distinct from AWNS. Specifically, in the absence of initial stress, metrical encoding of the syllable boundary may delay speech planning in AWS and contribute to breakdowns in fluent speech production.


International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders | 2013

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision skills in school-age children who do and do not stutter

Jayanthi Sasisekaran; Courtney T. Byrd

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision represent the combined influence of several speech and language processes. In the present study we investigated nonword repetition and phoneme elision performance in school-age children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CNS). Participants were 14 CWS (mean = 11.7 years, SD = 2.1 years) and age- and sex-matched CNS (mean = 11.8 years, SD = 2.0 years). Each talker group was further subdivided into two age groups: younger (N = 7; 8-11.5 years) and older (N = 7; 11.6-15 years). Repeated-measures analyses were conducted on the accuracy and response time (in seconds) data. In nonword repetition, the CWS showed a trend for lower per cent of correct phonemes at the two-syllable level compared with the CNS. In phoneme elision, the younger CWS showed a significantly lower accuracy rate than the older CWS at the two- and three-syllable nonword lengths, while similar differences were not evident between the younger versus older CNS at any of the nonword lengths. No accuracy difference in phoneme elision was noted between the two talker groups. Group differences in speech initiation times were also not evident in either of the tasks. Findings from nonword repetition offer tentative support for difficulties experienced by school-age CWS in phonemic encoding/working memory abilities. Findings from the phoneme elision task suggest a complex pattern of age-dependent performance by the CWS. Comparison of response accuracy and speech initiation times in both the tasks failed to show speed-accuracy trade-off strategies in either of the groups.


Journal of Fluency Disorders | 2013

A preliminary investigation of segmentation and rhyme abilities of children who stutter.

Jayanthi Sasisekaran; Courtney T. Byrd

UNLABELLED The present study investigated segmentation and rhyme abilities, skills critical for phonological encoding, of children who stutter (CWS) and those who do not (CNS). Participants were 9 CWS (8 males and 1 female, mean age=11.1, SD=2.31) in the age range of 7 and 13 years and 9 age and sex matched CNS (mean age=11.2, SD=2.19). Participants performed two verbal monitoring tasks, phoneme and rhyme monitoring, in silent naming. Performances in the verbal monitoring tasks were compared to a neutral, nonverbal tone monitoring task. Additionally, the complexity of the phoneme monitoring task was varied such that participants had to monitor for singletons vs. consonant clusters. Repeated measures analysis of the response time data did not reveal significant differences between the groups in the three monitoring tasks. Analysis of the complexity data revealed a trend for slower monitoring of the consonant clusters in the CWS group compared to the CNS. Present findings do not support a deficit in segmentation and rhyme abilities in CWS, although there was some preliminary evidence of segmentation difficulties with increasing phonological complexity of the stimuli. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (a) discuss the literature on phonological encoding skills in children who stutter, (b) describe skills underlying the phonological encoding process, (c) summarize whether or not children who stutter differ from those who do not in segmentation and rhyme abilities, (d) suggest future areas of research in the investigation of segmentation and rhyme monitoring abilities in children who stutter.

Collaboration


Dive into the Courtney T. Byrd's collaboration.

Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Zoi Gkalitsiou

University of Texas at Austin

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Megann McGill

University of Texas at Austin

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Elizabeth Hampton

University of Texas at Austin

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Harvey M. Sussman

University of Texas at Austin

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Lisa M. Bedore

University of Texas at Austin

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Researchain Logo
Decentralizing Knowledge