Differences of articulation rate and utterance length in fluent and disfluent utterances of preschool children who stutter

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of four types of utterances in preschool children who stutter: perceptually fluent, containing normal disfluencies (OD utterance), containing stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD utterance), and containing both normal and stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD + OD utterance). Articulation rate and length of utterance were measured to seek the differences. Because articulation rate may reflect temporal aspects of speech motor control, it was predicted that the articulation rate would be different between perceptually fluent utterances and utterances containing disfluencies. The length of utterance was also expected to show different patterns.MethodParticipants were 14 preschool children who stutter. Disfluencies were identified from their spontaneous speech samples, and articulation rate in syllables per second and utterance length in syllables were measured for the four types of utterances.Results and discussionThere was no significant difference in articulation rate between each type of utterance. Significantly longer utterances were found only in SLD + OD utterances compared to fluent utterances, suggesting that utterance length may be related to efforts in executing motor as well as linguistic planning. The SLD utterance revealed a significant negative correlation in that longer utterances tended to be slower in articulation rates. Longer utterances may place more demand on speech motor control due to more linguistic and/or grammatical features, resulting in stuttering-like disfluencies and a decreased rate.Learning outcomesThe reader will learn about and be able to: (a) distinguish the difference between measures of overall speaking rate and articulation rate; (b) explain the theoretical and clinical trends of articulation rate in stuttering; (c) discuss how utterances containing stuttering-like disfluencies, utterances containing other disfluencies, and utterances containing both stuttering-like disfluencies and other disfluencies influence articulation rate; and (d) discuss how the length of utterances is related to disfluencies.

► We examine rate and length in fluent/disfluent utterances from stuttering children.
► Stuttered utterances show correlation between articulation rate and length.
► There is no significant difference in rate among the different types of utterances.
► Utterances containing normal and stuttering-like disfluencies are longer in length.