Fluency Chapters 1-3 Flashcards
ABC’s of Stuttering
Affective, behavioral, cognitive
Adaptation
The tendency for speakers to stutter less and less up to a point when repeatedly reading a passage.
Anticipation
An individual’s ability to predict on which words or sounds they will stutter.
Attitude
A feeling the has become a pervasive part of someone’s beliefs.
Avoidance Behavior
A speaker’s attempt tp prevent stuttering when they anticipate a stutter. Word based avoidances like “uh” may be said before the expected word or sound.
Block
An inappropriate flow of air, voice, or movement of articulators.
Consistency
The tendency for speakers to stutter on the same words when reading a passage several times.
Core Behaviors
Basic speech behaviors of stuttering; repetition, prolongation, and block.
Developmental Stuttering
Most common form of stuttering that develops during childhood.
Disfluency
Interruption of speech such as repetition, hesitancy, or prolongation of sound that may occur in people who do or do not stutter.
Escape Behavior
The attempt to terminate a stutter and finish the word. Occurs when the speaker is already in the moment of stuttering.
Fluency
Effortless flow of speech.
Heterogeneity
Differences among various types of a disorder.
Incidence
Index of how many people have stuttered at some time in their lives.
Do all cultures have stuttering?
Yes, it is found in all cultures and races, and affects people regardless of intellect, income, race, sex, or age.
What causes people to stutter?
It is likely genetic, and affects the neural pathways associated with verbal language.
Cerebral dominance for speech.
“Both old and new studies have shown that individuals who stutter have greater activity in their right hemispheres than in their left hemispheres, during both fluent and stuttered speech. Just to remind you, this is the reverse of the pattern shown by fluent typical subjects who show considerable left-hemisphere activity and little right-hemisphere activity during speech.”
Overactivation in Midbrain Areas
“A number of researchers have reported unusually high levels of activity in midbrain structures that, via pathways to the cerebral cortex, may influence speech movements. Specifically, some structures of the basal ganglia have been shown to be overactive in those who stutter. This midbrain area is important in speech motor activity, via loops that send signals from the cortex to the basal ganglia, which then send “go” or “no go” signals to the supplementary motor area (SMA), which itself is responsible for initiating the respiratory, phonatory, and articulatory movements needed for speech. Excess activity in the basal ganglia associated with stuttering could possibly result “in inhibitory signals sent to SMA that would prevent the initiation of speech movements”
Brain Structure Differences in People Who Stutter Compared with People Who Do Not Stutter
“The findings suggested that sensory, planning, and motor areas in the left hemisphere of these individuals developed differently from those in matched nonstuttering individuals. For example, white matter tracts, which convey information from sensory centers in the left hemisphere (which, e.g., store phonological representations of sounds) to motor execution areas of the left hemisphere, have been shown to be less dense than those in typical speakers. However, the same tracts were found to be denser in the right hemisphere of those who stuttered. It is perhaps a consequence of the right hemisphere takeover of some typical left-hemisphere functions, mentioned earlier.”
“Overall, stuttering was associated with abnormal connectivity in networks associated with attention, motor performance, perception, and emotion. This finding may help explain why there is such variability in stuttering (connectivity changes over time) and why stuttering may co-occur with other disorders such as attention deficit disorder and anxiety. This study is probably the first of many that will follow, exploring abnormal connectivity in networks of individuals who stutter”
Anomaly
A difference from the normal structure or function.
Proprioception
Sensory information from the body the conveys position of structures and movements of structures.
Sensorimotor control
The way all movement is carried out with sensory information used before, after, and during to improve the precision of movement.
Sensory processing
Activity of the brain as it interprets information coming from the senses, such as sounds arriving via the ears and auditory nerves.
Stuttering and sensory processing deficits
Auditory perception, cortical speech processing, dichotic listening, and control of movement using kinesthetic feedback. These deficits may signal some weakness in use of sensory information to make movements used in speech production.
Reaction times
Sensorimotor responses like reaction times are slower in those who stutter. Movements in fluent speech are also slower.
Stress
The stress of language input at ages 2 to 5, or emotion arousal may contribute to stuttering.
