Hemispheric alpha asymmetries of stuttering males and nonstuttering males and females for words of high and low imagery

Alpha hemispheric asymmetries of nonstuttering males, nonstuttering females, and stuttering males were explored with electroencephalographic procedures during exposure to two lists of one-syllable words which the subjects were required to recall following presentation. One word list contained low-imagery words while the other contained high-imagery words. Stuttering males were found to have significantly less alpha in their right hemispheres, suggesting right hemispheric processing strategies. This finding was interpreted as supporting the “segmentation dysfunction” explanation of stuttering suggested by Moore and Haynes (1979b). Nonstuttering males showed less left than right alpha while nonstuttering females revealed no difference between their right and left hemispheres. Differences between nonstuttering males and females are discussed as being task and stimuli dependent relative to the segmental/nonsegmental nature of both task and stimuli. Differential hemispheric asymmetries for words of high or low-imagery were not observed.     

Brain stem electrical responses of stutterers and normals by sex,ears, and recovery

Auditory brainstem electrical responses (BSER) of right and left ears of active stutterers, recovered stutterers, and nonstutterers, both male and female adults, were obtained at click rates of 11.1 and 71.1/sec. Latency intervals of waves I, III, and V were measured. The auditory systems of subjects were stressed using a rapid rate of 71.1 clicks/sec. The latency of wave V was used as the measure of the stress condition.Analysis of variance was used to determine statistical significances of main effects and interactions of mean BSER (waves I, III, V, and wave V in stress condition) of left and right ears of male stutterers (active and recovered), female stutterers (active and recovered), and male and female nonstutterers.With one exception, all main effects and all higher order interactions were nonsignificant. The one main effect that was significant was gender. Females have significantly faster rates of neural transmission than do males. The question was raised, does this finding contribute toward an explanation of the sex ratio in stuttering?     

Cumulative integrated electromyographic activity of selected speech-related muscle groups of nonstutterers during massed oral readings

The electromyographic (EMG) integrated amplitude of masseter and laryngeal muscle groups were analyzed during five massed oral readings of 16 nonstuttering adult subjects. Reduction in dysfluencies were observed over the five trials as was a reduction in reading time across trials. Significant decreases in EMG activity across trials were found for the laryngeal, but not the masseter, EMG activity. This suggests that changes in vocal behavior thought to accompany adaptation are reflected in decreases in EMG activity of select speech-related muscle groups.     

Click location in sentences: A test of the linguistic competence of seven-year-old fluent and disfluent males

Ten fluent and ten disfluent 7-yr-old males were presented simple and complex fully grammatical, anomalous and scrambled sentences. A click (35-msec 1-kHz tone burst) had been superimposed within three positions to the right or left of the major syntactic boundary in each sentence. The subjects heard the sentence, repeated the sentence, and marked on a preprinted version of the sentence where they heard the click. It was expected that children with greater language facility would more probably locate the click veridically. By the same reasoning, less complex syntactic structures should be expected to influence click placement less than more complex utterances. The following results were obtained: (a) the disfluent group gave a greater number of correct responses than the fluent group; (b) more correct responses were observed for simple sentences than for complex sentences for both groups; and (c) fewer correct responses were observed for both simple and complex grammatical sentences than for anomalous and scrambled sentence types.     

A comparison of the Probe technique and conventional therapy for young stutterers

This study contrasted the gains made in speech theraphy by 39 stutterers, 15 of whom were treated by conventional methods and 24 by the Probe technique. It was found that the Probe technique yielded substantially greater gains in fluency than did the conventional method, having more influence on final performance than factors such as initial fluency, time since onset of stuttering, or the presence of other unacceptable behaviors.     

Bibliography of literature pertaining to the onset,development, and treatment of stuttering during the preschool years

This bibliography consists of clinical, experimental, and theoretical papers pertaining to the onset, development, and treatment of stuttering in children five- years old and younger. It is a downward extension of Silverman, F.H., Bibliography of literature pertaining to stuttering in elementary-school children, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 1978, 3, 87–102.     

Rate reduction strategies used by stutterers and nonstutterers during high- and low-pitched speech

Groups of child and adult normal speakers and stutterers were tested in an habitual condition and in conditions where they were instructed to read aloud at pitches both higher than and lower than normal. Objective measures were made of subjects' fluent reading rate, and vowel and pause durations across conditions. Disfluencies were also counted. Findings revealed that all four subject groups reduced their frequency of disfluency from the habitual to both experimental conditions. These decrements in disfluency were attended by significant reductions in fluent reading rate. Spectrographic analyses revealed that most subjects, regardless of age and speaker characteristic, affected their rate reduction by extending both vowel and pause durations. These results are compatible with those obtained in recent studies and are discussed.     

Clustering of disfluency in nonstuttering childrens' early utterances

The clustering of disfluency within early utterances in the speech of four nonstuttering children was examined. During the developmental period their mean length of utterance was between 2.25 and 3.0 morphemes. The frequency and characteristics of the clustered disfluencies are described and compared with single disfluent moments. Clusters of two disfluencies were analyzed for interactive effects of positional preference and type. Results were similar to those found in older preschool nonstuttering speakers, demonstrating the normal developmental nature of clustering in early sentences. Implications for using this temporal measure to differentially diagnose normal from abnormal disfluency are discussed.     

Fluency and eye contact as factors influencing observers' perceptions of stutterers

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of different levels of eye contact and fluency on observers' perceptions of a speaker. One of four videotapes depicting an actor (playing the part of a supervisor) interviewing another actor (who played a subordinate) were shown to 127 college students. The four videotapes represented four different conditions comprising combinations of fluent vs nonfluent speech and normal vs low eye contact. Results indicated that these combinations of fluency and eye contact differentially influence listeners' perceptions of a speaker. Highest ratings were obtained for the fluent-normal eye-contact speaker, with lower ratings for all other conditions. In addition, it was determined that the frequency of eye contact rather than fluency was more strongly related to listeners' perceptions. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Manual reaction time to linguistic stimuli in child stutterers and nonstutterers

Ten stuttering and ten nonstuttering children, ages 4–8 yr, served as subjects for a motor reaction task to simple and complex linguistic stimuli. The subjects reacted by pressing one of four panels on a touch-sensitive board that depicted the appropriate semantic relationship in response to 30 simple and complex linguistic stimuli. There was a significant increase in the reaction time of both groups with increasing linguistic complexity. No significant differences were found in the reaction time between the two groups, nor in the interaction between group and complexity. Implications regarding linguistic processing are discussed, and an “overload” hypothesis of stuttering is dispelled. It is concluded that stutterers and nonstutterers in this study did not differ in their reaction time nor in their processing time of linguistic material.     

Attitude and personality characteristics of older stutterers

Attitude and personality characteristics of 29 stutterers (19 male, 10 female) aged 52–82 yr were assessed using five questionnaires. Results indicate that, while the older stutterers score approximately the same as young adult stutterers on scales assessing approach and performance behaviors, the large majority of older stutterers perceive their stuttering as less handicapping than when they were young adults. Self-perceived personality characteristics of the older stutterers were similar to a group of older nonstutterers. While a few of the subjects had experienced some degree of success as a result of treatment later in life, the majority of the subjects did not currently desire treatment.     

Word frequency and children's stuttering: The relationship to sentence structure

This study investigated the relationship between word-frequency level and stuttering within the context of four slected sentence types. Fifteen stuttering children, aged 8–12, read 48 sentences of four different transformational types, and three word-frequency levels 12 simple active-affirmative-declarative (SAAD), 12 negative, 12 passive and 12 negative-passive. All sentences were identical in terms of underlying swings and variations of the SAAD sentences. Results agreed with Ronson's study with adults (1976) in that when the group rating was severe and the sentence type was negative, stuttering increased significantly as word-frequency level decreased. It appears that children's stuttering in relationship to word-frequency level is a different response that is subject to variables of sentence type and the severity rating of stuttering.     

Issues to consider in the differential diagnosis of normal childhood nonfluencies and stuttering

Historically more attention has been focused on the adult stutterer than on the young stutterer. This article discusses three key issues in the differential diagnosis of normal childhood nonfluencies and childhood stuttering. The three issues are (1) whether early childhood disfluencies are heterogeneous or homogeneous phenomena, (2) whether the relationship between normal childhood nonfluencies and early stuttering is continuous or dichotomous, and (3) whether normal nonfluencies and stuttering differ quantitatively or qualitatively. Theoretical research as well as clinical implications of these issues are discussed.     

The voice problems of stutterers: A practical approach from clinical experience

Voice disorders, which may be caused by the stuttering problem, have been noted in at least one-third of stutterers seen. Basically, stutterers have false speech images that normal speech is perfect and without natural dysfluencies (repetitions, pauses, etc.). Many stutterers also have erroneous vocal images of how they should or should not sound. Both images control speech and voice. Clinical experience indicates that vocal rehabilitation should be used in conjunction with speech therapy for many stutterers.     

The identification of stuttering: Can you look and tell

This investigation focussed on how observers identify stutterers. It was found that stutterers are identified most correctly under visual circumstances as compared to auditory and combined auditory-visual conditions. Therefore, the reduction of stuttering should include removal of noticeable, interfering, and unnecessary nonverbal behaviors, particularly mouth and nostril movements.     

Reaction time for voiced and whispered /a/ in stutterers and nonstutterers

Recent research reviewed in this article suggests that stutterers' inability to initiate phonation promptly could be a significant factor in the occurence of stuttering. Since stuttering is either completely absent or markedly reduced in frequency during whisper, the present study tested the hypothesis that stutterers do not significantly differ from nonstutterers in reaction time (RT) for the initiation of whispered/a/, whereas the two groups differ significantly in RT for the initiation of voiced /a/. Ten adult stutterers and an equal number of comparable nonstutterers produced prolonged versions of the vowel /a/ using voice and whisper in response to tone stimuli. The results showed that stutteres and nonstutterers did not differ in RT for either voiced or whispered /a/. The stutterers, however, exhibited significantly longer RT to produce voiced /a/ than whispered /a/.     

The effect of punishment and reinforcement procedures on a stutterer's factor II avoidance response

The purpose of this clinical experiment was to investigate the manipulability of a Factor II avoidance response (arm movement). The substantive hypothesis under test was that its suppression would be enhanced by repeated punishment sessions. During the first of nine therapy sessions response-contingent negative stimulation was not delivered. In the next five, after a base-rate period, “wrong” was made consequent upon the target response. In each of these sessions the suppression of arm movement was apparent. However, the magnitude of the suppression decreased from session to session. Evidently, the continued use of punishment did not enhance suppression. Because of this finding procedural changes were introduced in the next three therapy sessions. Verbal praise was added as a consequence of increasingly stringent omission criteria and three consecutive units of praise led to time-out from the reportedly fatiguing task of continuous speech. A marked reduction and then complete extinction resulted. Moreover, learning was evidenced since the frequency of arm movement lessened in the base-rate period of each session.     

Antecedents of fluent and dysfluent oral reading: A descriptive analysis

Utilizing the method of repeated observations of a single subject, 18 oral reading samples were obtained from a fluent male child. Observations were made when the child was 5.6 to 6.1 yr of age. The reading material contained varying amounts of words neither understood nor produced by the child. Taped samples were analyzed for antecedents and consequences of fluent and dysfluent events, and extraneous verbal and nonverbal stimulus-response sequences. The analysis revealed the presence of five antecedents of dysfluencies: (1) poor lexical control, (2) competing stimulus-response sequences, (3) intraverbal break, (4) poor prosodic control, and (5) unusually strong intraverbal control. The results also suggested that fluency may be a function of appropriate, sequential, discriminative, stimulus control, adequate intraverbal and prosodic control in the absence of overbearing intraverbal control and interfering stimulus-response sequences.