Purpose: To relate changes in four variables previously defined as characteristic of normally fluent speech to changes in phonatory behavior during oral reading by persons who stutter (PWS) and normally fluent controls under multiple fluency-inducing (FI) conditions. Method: Twelve PWS and 12 controls each completed 4 ABA experiments. During A…

Recent studies have implicated anatomical differences in speech-relevant brain regions of adults who stutter (AWS) compared to normally fluent adults (NFA). The present study focused on the region of the corpus callosum (CC) which is involved in interhemispheric processing between the left and right cerebral hemispheres. Two-dimensional…

Although persistent developmental stuttering is known to affect daily living, just how great the impact is remains unclear. Furthermore, little is known about the underlying mechanisms which lead to a diminished quality of life (QoL). The primary objective of this study is to explore to what extent QoL is impaired in adults who stutter (AWS). In…

The goal of this study was to evaluate stuttering frequency across a multidimensional (2 x 2) hierarchy of speech performance tasks. Specifically, this study examined the interaction between changes in length of utterance and levels of speech rate stability. Forty-four adult male speakers participated in the study (22 stuttering speakers and 22…

In this descriptive, longitudinal study, phonological patterns (i.e., natural phonological processes) were examined in a set of conversational speech samples obtained from six young children fitted with cochlear implants. Both developmental and non-developmental patterns were observed. This is consistent with findings from previous studies of the…

This study compared respiratory function during quiet breathing and monologue, in six adult dystonic subjects and a control group of four neurologically intact adults. Dystonic subjects showed a faster breathing rate, less rhythmic breathing pattern, decreased lung volume, and apnea-like periods. Decreased speech intelligibility was related to…

The aim of the study was to investigate associations between the severity of motor limitations, cognitive difficulties, language and motor speech problems in children with cerebral palsy. Also, the predictive power of neonatal cranial ultrasound findings on later outcome was investigated. For this purpose, 36 children (age range 1 year 10 months…

The study describes aspects of the phonologies of three children with Down's syndrome, aged three and four years. Results are presented from three perspectives: first, sounds the child uses to distinguish between different meanings; second, sounds the child has learned to pronounce correctly; and third, phonologic processes that cause…

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 116 laryngectomees revealed that extensive surgery did not lesson Ss' ability to learn esophageal speech. Educational level, socioeconomic status, length of time in speech therapy, and time since surgery did not statistically influence speech results. Ss still employed did achieve esophageal speech more…

Investigations in recent years have indicated that only about 20% of the speech output of the deaf is understood by the "person on the street." This lack of intelligibility has been associated with some frequently occurring segmental and suprasegmental errors. Journal Availability: Elsevier North Holland, Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY…

Evaluation of disfluency and rate characteristics of the speech of 75 White male subjects in five age groups (from 21 to 91) indicated significant differences in speech rate among groups. Also, speech rate differed significantly, in decreasing order, for oral reading, conversation, and picture description for all groups. (DB)

To evaluate the theory that central auditory processing deficits exist in the normally disfluent population, 40 adults were administered the Synthetic Sentence Identification-Ipsilateral Competing Message Measure. Results revealed a significant difference between the performance of fluent and disfluent normal speakers but not between ear…

The study compared five adult stutterers' and five adult nonstutterers' fluent speech patterns produced during one nonshadowed reading and two speech-shadowing conditions (immediate repetition of a heard message). Among results were that stutterers produced fewer speech production errors than nonstutterers during shadowing conditions. (Author/DB)

Results of anoral reading measure indicated that, compared to normal-hearing Ss the speech respiration of 92 hearing-impaired young adults was characterized by (1) high air consumption; (2) frequent inspirations; (3) inspirations at linguistically inappropriate places; (4) short duration of expiration; and (5) large individual differences. (CL)

Five profoundly deaf adults were recorded reading lists of individual words under three expressive modes (speech alone, speech and signs, and speech with cues). Results indicated that speech with cues produced the highest level of intelligibility, speech and signs the lowest. (Author/CL)