Peter R. Ramig

Working With 7- to 12-Year-Old Children Who Stutter: Ideas for Intervention in the Public Schools

The public school speech-language clinician is encouraged to intervene with the school-age child who stutters. The importance of including parents and teachers in the therapeutic process is address...

The impact of self-help groups on persons who stutter: A call for research

Abstract The impact of self-help groups on the person who stutters appears to be highly positive; however, only a few studies on the topic have been conducted. Consequently, little is known regarding the components that contribute to their success. The author encourages more research on this topic and offers questions needing answers regarding the impact of self-help groups in order to learn more of the specifics as to why they work. This research needs to be more systematic and should include significantly larger sampling than previous studies. A description of the larger self-help and related groups in the United States is also given. Problems associated with local chapters are mentioned and the need for better clinician awareness of the benefits of self-help are stated.

High Reported Spontaneous Stuttering Recovery Rates: Fact or Fiction?.

The families of 21 children who stuttered were contacted 6 to 8 years after their child first was diagnosed as needing intervention for stuttering. The vast majority of these children still were ex...

Temporal characteristics in the fluent speech of child stutterers and nonstutterers

Abstract Past research reveals that adult stutterers often possess aberrant speech-timing abilities. As yet, only Healey and Adams (1981) have investigated these abilities in child stutterers. The present study attempted to assess the speech-timing skills of child stutterers and normal-speaking children while performing both simple and complex speech. Each subject was required to participate in two tasks: a sentence repetition task for simple speech and a story-retelling task for complex speech. Results supported those found by Healey and Adams, indicating that child stutterers have speech-timing abilities similar to normal-speaking children in simple speech tasks. The complex task, however, revealed that stutterers exhibited more frequent and longer interword pauses than nonstutterers. Two hypotheses generated from past research are offered to explain these differences. A third untested theory is also presented.

Rate changes in the speech of stutterers after therapy

Abstract The fluent speaking rate of nine adult male stutterers was compared before and after stuttering intervention. The subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 37 yr (mean, 25 yr, 3 mo), exhibited mild to severe stuttering prior to treatment. The only rate reduction strategy taught to subjects during intervention was to slow the first phoneme or syllable of sentences spoken. In addition, however, subjects significantly reduced their overall rate as determined by measurements made of their fluent speech at the middle of sentences, as well as overall sentence durations (excepting the first word of utterances). The data from this investigation are interpreted relative to the facilitation/simplification hypothesis.

Vocal changes in stutterers and nonstutterers when speaking to children

Abstract Within the last few years, considerable attention has been devoted to the possibility that the amelioration of stuttering in many novel speaking conditions is a function of vocal changes with or without accompanying modifications in prosodic expression. These formulations have made reference primarily to conditions in which stutterers were induced into one or another novel speech pattern by an external stimulus such as masking noise, a rhythmic cue, or by instructions to sing, or read in unison with another speaker. In contrast, far less attention has been paid to other ameliorative conditions that lack a novel external stimulus or special instructions that direct the stutterer to speak in some unique manner. Speaking or reading to a child is an example of this latter type of condition. The present study was conducted to see if nine adult stutterers and a matched group of nonstutterers would evince vocal changes as they read aloud to another adult, a child, and a child and adult together. There was also a fourth control condition wherein the subjects read to one of the experimenters. Dependent measures of disfluency and stuttering, fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency deviation, fluent reading rate, and peak vocal sound pressure level were made and treated statistically. The major findings of this study indicated that, relative to the control condition, both subject groups exhibited several vocal changes when reading to a child alone and to a child and adult together. In addition, the stutterers experienced a reduction in disfluency, but only when reading to the child alone. The normal speakers exhibited too few disfluencies in the control condition for any meaningful change to occur in that dependent variable. The fact that the stutterers evinced vocal changes in both experimental conditions but a significant drop in disfluency in just one bears importantly on hypotheses that emphasize vocal changes in conditions that ameliorate stuttering.

Pause and utterance durations and fundamental frequency characteristics of repeated oral readings by stutterers and nonstutterers

Abstract Effects of repeated oral readings on durational and fundamental frequency characteristics and number and kinds of reading errors were investigated in 11 stutterers and 11 sex- +and age-matched nonstutterers. Computer analysis of durational and fundamental frequency characteristics of the first and sixth readings demonstrated statistically significant differences in mean pause duration, speaking-time ratio, and total speaking time between the stutterers and the nonstutterers. In addition, there were significant differences in mean utterance duration and number of utterances (and pauses) between the first and sixth readings. Finally, correlational analyses indicated variable performance in the stutterers whereas the nonstutterers demonstrated highly consistent performance between the first and sixth readings. Results of reading error analysis showed more and different types of reading errors by the stutterers in comparison to the nonstutterers although both groups demonstrated a reduction in reading errors from the first to the sixth readings.

Vocal changes in stutterers and nonstutterers during monotoned speech

Abstract For years, reports have circulated that stutterers experience marked decrements in their stuttering when they speak or read in monotone. Wingate has suggested that the ameliorative effects of various novel speaking conditions on stuttering can be attributed to modifications in vocalization induced by such conditions. The present study was conducted to see whether this explanation would extend to monotoned speech as well. Ten teenage and adult stutterers and 10 normal speakers were tested in control and monotone reading conditions. Dependent measures were the frequencies of disfluency and stuttering, fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency standard deviation, vocal SPL, vocal SPL standard deviation, and fluent reading rate. Only within-group statistical comparisons were made, because members of the two groups could not be matched pairwise along critical vocal parameters. The major findings of this study indicated that across the two conditions, both groups significantly reduced their fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency standard deviation, vocal SPL and vocal SPL standard deviation. Only the stutterers exhibited a significant decrement in disfluency and stuttering. The normals did not evince enough disfluency in the control condition for a reduction to occur during monotoning. Neither group effected a reduction in fluent reading rates. These and other findings and interpretations are discussed relative to Wingates modified vocalization hypothesis.

Indirect and combined direct-indirect therapy in a dysfluent child

Abstract The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of an indirect and a direct-indirect intervention approach in a young dysfluent child. Indirect methods were used during two treatments (Treatment 1 and Treatment 2); however, direct intervention was emphasized during treatment 2. Conversational speech samples were analyzed for pre- and post-treatment periods to obtain behavioral frequency data. A higher degree of fluency as well as more permanent results were apparent after Treatment 2. These results support the use of a combined direct-indirect intervention approach in a young dysfluent child.

Performance differences between stuttering and nonstuttering subjects on a sound fusion task

Abstract This study investigated the possibility that there are central auditory level processing differences between stutterers and nonstutterers. The experimental subjects were eight male and three female stutterers ranging in age from 20–45 yr, with a mean age of 31.2 yr. The control group consisted of the same number of males and females, ranging in age from 20–45 yr, with a mean age of 30.1 yr. Each subject participated in a sound fusion task under three variable conditions: 1) group performance (nonstutterers vs. stutterers); 2) ears (right vs. left); and 3) lead-time presentation (0–100 msec). Statistically significant differences were found for lead-time presentation.