Overview of stuttering Flashcards
Define speech fluency.
The effortless flow of speech.
Allows listener to attend to the content of speech rather than the way it is being produced.
What is stuttering?
- multidimensional disorder
- breakdown in the interaction of the physical, psychological, linguistic, and psychosocial components of normal speech production
- awareness of stuttering moments/ accompanying feeling of loss of control/ struggle and/or avoidance behaviors/ learned attitudinal and behavioral responses to the underlying neurological disorder
- developed attitudes and behaviors interact with and are influenced by the various environments
What are three elements of speech fluency?
Rate, continuity, and effort.
Define speech rate.
The speed at which the person is able to make information flow.
- 196 syllables/ minute is average
Define continuity.
The smooth movement produced within an utterance.
Define effort.
The amount of mental and physical effort used to speak
Dysfluent speech: high cognitive demand to formulate an utterance, tense glottal fry, irregular breathing
Fluent speech: little attention or awareness needed to formulate a response, physical ease of production
What do typical disfluencies include?
- repetitions, prolongations, interjections, and revisions
- unusual location and/or increased frequencies of pauses
- atypical rhythmical patterning, intonation, and/or rate
What is the prevalence of stuttering?
2.4% of kindergarten era
1% of school kids
Less than 1% of adults
Overall: about 1% of the general population
Define incidence.
The rate of occurrence of something.
Define prevalence.
Rate of occurrence at this moment/ who has it now
What is the incidence of stuttering?
5% of people have stuttered at some point in their life
Of the 5%, 20% of those people continue to stutter as adults
What are the gender differences in stuttering? In 2 year olds? In 4 year olds? In older children and adults?
2: 1 males to female before the age of 2
2: 1 males to female below the age of 4
5: 1 males to females as older children or adults
What are the genetics statistics of stuttering?
70% of CWS have a relative who stutters
25% generally have a parent who stutters
63% of identical twins share a stutter
19% of fraternal twins share a stutter
What are the statistics related to concomitant disorders?
24-45% of CWS have a phonological disorder, CWS with a phonological disorder are less likely to recover from stuttering
Unknown statistics for stuttering and language disorders, but children who recover from stuttering have higher language scores than children who persist in stuttering
What are the three components of the Synergistic Approach?
Speech and language
Attitudes and feelings
Environment
What are the three main theories of treatment?
Fluency shaping
Stuttering modification
Synergistic Approach
Define fluency shaping.
Focuses on speech-language element of stuttering using a structured hierarchy that moves through the physiological systems of normal speech production to achieve fluent speech
Goal: 100% fluency
Define stuttering modification.
Focuses on changes in speech, attitudes and feelings, and avoidances related to stuttering
- wants relaxed stuttering and improved sense of self
Define Synergistic Approach.
Focused in whole person by integrating fluency shaping and stuttering modification and environmental factors on fluency
What are the components of the attitudinal factors of the Synergistic Approach?
Self-esteem, locus of control, and assertiveness
What are the components of the environmental factors of the Synergistic Approach?
Communication demands, family composition, classroom/ work dynamics, and cultural factors
What factors increase the likelihood of spontaneous recovery from a fluency disorder?
Being young, female, not having a genetic history of stuttering, not having a concomitant/ comorbid phonological disorder, and having higher language skills increase the likelihood of a spontaneous recovery.
What are the basic behaviors of stuttering?
Repetitions, prolongations, and blocks
At what level do repetitions occur?
At the sound, syllable, word, or phrase level
Define prolongations.
Sound or airflow continues, but movement of the articulates stops
Define blocks.
Can be respiratory, laryngeal, or articulatory
Define secondary behaviors.
They are reactions to the core behaviors, attempts to end stuttering quickly or avoid it all together, begins as a random struggle, but turns into patterns
2 types: escape and avoidance behaviors
What is the difference between escape and avoidance behaviors?
It’s an issue of timing:
Escape behaviors are when the person does something during the stuttering moment to try to escape it whereas avoidance behaviors occur prior to the moment of stuttering to prevent the. From happening.
What are linguistic factors associated with stuttering?
Longer words more often stuttered on than shorter words
90% of stuttering occurs in initial position of words
High frequency words more often stuttered upon than low frequency words
Adults stutter on more nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Children stutter more on pronouns, conjunctions, preposition, etc
Define anticipation related to stuttering.
Many stutterers can predict which words they will stutter on
Define consistency related to stuttering.
When stutterers read a passage several times, they will stutter on the many of the same words each time.
Define adaptation related to stuttering.
When a stutter reads a passage several times, they will stutter less often.
What are some fluency inducing conditions?
Speaking when alone, to an infant or animal, speaking in unison with someone else, speaking slowly, listening to delayed auditory feedback
(Delayed auditory feedback works for about 6 weeks and then doesn’t)
Define emotion.
Subjective measure of probability of survival of the organism in a given situation or in front of a perceived stimulus.
A healthy, balanced emotional life requires an individual to experience a feeling, recognize it, accept, and express it and then let it go.
What are the three big emotions for a person who stutters?
Anger, guilt, and shame
What are the components of the speech-language factors of the Synergistic Approach?
Physiological, linguistic, and learned behaviors
