Stuttering Essay

Disfluencies have been used to define stuttering; however, some are considered normal and found in speakers who are not classified as stutterers. Studies have been done to determine the difference between normal and abnormal disfluencies; however, there has been widespread diversity on what is consider an early sign of stuttering. The purpose of this article was to provide normative data and a reference to help distinguish the difference between early signs of stuttering disfluencies and normal disfluencies in preschool children. The study was composed of 144 participants, 90 preschool aged children who exhibited stuttering and a control group of 54 normally fluent children. Of these participants 132 participants were Caucasian. All children
It was calculated by giving each category (part- and single-syllable words, repetition units, and dysrhythmic phonation) its own weight. Gender and age factors were also analyzed. MANOVA was used to evaluate the six different disfluency types. The difference between the experimental and control group were significant; however, gender and age showed no statistic importance. The main difference between the experimental and control group was the number of stuttering-like disfluencies; however, other disfluency occurrences appeared to be similar. Dysrhythmic phonation was significant in dividing the two groups, even though it was low in occurrence. Overall, the differences between the groups were statistically important. Patterns of disfluencies were then investigated using weighted measures. The weighted scores could be broken into three groups for the experimental group: mild, moderate, and severe, and two for the control: high and low disfluent. Overall, the study provides a normative reference of attributes for disfluent speech in preschoolers who stutter in relation to normally fluent children. It was concluded that stuttering-like disfluencies are noticeable when compared to normal disfluencies. However, all children experience some