Hugo H. Gregory

The relationship between age and frequency of disfluency in preschool children

Abstract The frequencies of nine types of disfluency, including silent pauses, were studied in 60 nonstuttering males, 3.5 and 5 yr-of-age. The younger children evidenced significantly higher rates of part word, word, and phrase repetitions, incomplete phrases, and disrhythmic phonations. The older children demonstrated significantly more grammatical pauses. The two groups did not differ in the frequency of interjections, ungrammatical pauses, and revisions. The most powerful discriminating category between the two age groups was phrase repetition. The results are compared with findings from other recent investigations of disfluency in nonstuttering preschool males. Possible explanations for the discrepancies among the various investigations and for the high degree of variability in disfluency reported in the literature are proposed. The results of this investigation suggest that nonstuttering children begin to show more adult-like disfluency patterns toward the later preschool years.

Analysis and Commentary

These articles are an excellent representation of the progress that has been made during the last 25 years in understanding the evaluation and treatment of fluency disorders in children. The author...

An assessment of the results of stuttering therapy

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the results of stuttering therapy for adults when a carefully delineated approach was utilized. Evaluations and measurements of the therapy groups were made nine months before therapy began, again at the end of this “waiting period” before therapy was initiated, at the end of the nine-month therapy period, and nine months after the close of therapy. Viewing all sixteen subjects as one group, there was a statistically significant reduction in stuttering during the therapy period. Taking severity into consideration, Group I (more severe) showed a significant improvement during therapy but regressed slightly during the follow-up period. Group II (less severe) improved during therapy and continued to improve during the follow-up period; however, the change never reached statistical significance. Responses to self- report procedures revealed significant decreases in avoidance behavior and stuttering, significant increases in the enjoyment of speaking, and significant improvement in attitudes toward stuttering, which was not related differentially to stuttering severity. Certain changes to make therapy more effective are discussed.

A clinician's perspective: Comments on identification of stuttering, prevention, and early intervention

Abstract I am responding to the Hamre article on the identification and prevention o stuttering and to what was said by those who commented in the recent Special Forum Issue. My discussion will be in terms of my understanding and one of my major career objectives, that of translating reported research and clinical experience in a meaningful and useful way for students and professional clinicians.

Auditory Processes in Stutterers

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the studies carried out to investigate the functioning of the auditory system in stutterers. Additionally, relates auditory processes to motor control factors in stutterers. Speculations about the masking effect in ameliorating stuttering, the impact of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) on normal speech, and the way in which DAF affects the speech of stutterers has led to much research focusing on the functional integrity of peripheral and central auditory feedback processes in stutterers and nonstutterers. The chapter discusses the evoked response audiometry (ERA) to evaluate the integrity of the auditory system at various levels and describes the measurement of averaged electroencephalographic response (AER). It is expected that a steady increase in the use of AER techniques in the study of auditory processes related to speech and language and speech and language disorders including stuttering. With patience and care, these techniques can be used with children in cases where it may not be possible to utilize procedures requiring behavioral responses; the conscious control of the subject is not required. Although a bit uncomfortable, this technique is not invasive

Stuttering — past and present: Principles and procedures of therapy

This article is based on a main report at The Third Nordic Congress for Logopedics and Phoniatrics, 7 October 1994. It provides a historical review of information about the treatment of stuttering from the 1940s to the. present, highlighting, the combining of stutter-more-fluently and speak-more-fluently therapy models. Principles providing a rationale for stuttering therapy that clinicians may use for guiding the making of decisions and planning treatment are discussed. Lastly, the applications of these principles to early intervention, therapy for teenage and adult clients, and therapy for elementary school-age children are discussed briefly.

Contemporary issues in stuttering therapy

The best model for understanding the development of stuttering appears to be one that considers certain characteristics of the subject and certain environmental variables and the ways in which these interact. Clinical experience, at present, does not indicate that a specific characteristic of a child, e.g. a specific language deficit or problem of oral or laryngeal motor coordination for speech, will by itself result in stuttering, nor will a stressful environment alone necessarily cause stuttering. Most case studies reveal that a combination of both subject variables and environmental factors appear to contribute to increased disfluency and/or stuttering behavior in a particular child. Of course, in some cases, it may be difficult to separate the two types of variables since environmental factors influence children’s development very early, but at the time of evaluation we attempt to use these two categories as a frame of reference. In using this model for the formulation of research, we are attempting to standardize the presentation of communicative pressure to study the way in which the fluency of the children’s speech responses varies depending on certain subject variables and specified magnitudes of speech pressure. My interest in differential evaluation grows out of clinical experience and my knowledge of stuttering research. In 1973, I wrote a brief introductory book, Stuttering: Differential Evaluation and Therapy, describing a broad case history, clinical observation, and testing approach, and giving the rationale for each procedure with reference to current theory and research information. The research rationale described included studies from different specialized fields such as psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology, anthropology, neurology, genetics, and of course, speech science and speech-language pathology. We expect this