Relation of motor, linguistic and temperament factors in epidemiologic subtypes of persistent and recovered stuttering: Initial findings

• Longitudinal data on early development in childhood stuttering presented.
• Domains of epidemiology, motor, language, phonology and temperament examined.
• Results support subtypes of persistence and recovery.
• Further study is warranted.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine the presence of any patterns reflecting underlying subtypes of persistence and recovery across epidemiologic, motor, language, and temperament domains in the same group of children beginning to stutter and followed for several years.MethodsParticipants were 58 2–4-year-old CWS and 40 age and gender matched NFC from four different sites in the Midwest. At the end of the multi-year study, stuttering children were classified as Persistent or Recovered. The same protocol obtaining data to measure stuttering, motor, language and temperament characteristics was used at each site. They have not been included in previous reports.ResultsThe Persistent group performed consistently differently from the Recovered and Control groups. They performed lower on standardized language tests and in phonological accuracy, had greater kinematic variability, and were judged by their parents to be more negative in temperament.ConclusionsThe present study provides data supporting the hypothesis that subtypes of stuttering can be identified along persistency/recovery lines, but results were not definitive.Educational Objectives: Readers will be able to (a) describe the current state of subtypes of stuttering research; (b) summarize possible contributions of epidemiologic, motoric, linguistic and temperament to such subtyping with regard to persistency and recovery.