Week One Flashcards
1. What is stuttering 2. What are its characteristics 3. Who stutters
What is fluency?
Fluency is made up of several components including:
- rate
- continuity
- tension, effort, regulation of force
All of these things work together to create effortless flow of speech
What is disfluency?
Disfluency is disruption in the effortless flow of speech
Stuttering is a speech disorder, true or false?
True
When does stuttering typically emerge?
Typically it emerges in early childhood (range 2-5 years, average 33 months), but it can occur later in life (acquired stuttering).
What are some of the characteristics of stuttering?
Frequent:
1. Repetitions of sounds and monosyllables
2. Sound prolongations
3. interruptions in the forward flow of speech
There may also be:
- Physical muscle tension and struggle
- impact to emotional, academic and social wellbeing
Why is early detection so important?
Early detection allows for early intervention which increases the odd of successful outcomes.
What are the three components of stuttering?
- Core behaviours
- Basic speech behaviours - Secondary behaviours
- Physical concomitants - Feelings and attitudes
- Emotional characteristics
What are core speech behaviours of stuttering?
- Part-word repetition
- Single-syllable repetition
- Dysrhythmic phonation
- Sound prolongations
- Blocks
- Broken words
How is stuttering categorised according to the Lidcombe Programme?
Repeated Movements
- Syllable repetition
- Incomplete syllable repetition
- Multisyllable unit repetition
Fixed Postures
- With audible airflow (prolongations)
- Without audible airflow (blocks)
Extraneous Movements
- Verbal (interjections)
- Nonverbal (facial grimace)
Kids often begin with speech characterised by blocks, true or false?
False, repetitions are often the first speech characteristic
How can stuttering be measured?
DURATION OF DISFLUENCIES
- Time the time from beginning to end of a disfluent event
- Count the number of extra iterations of speech segment. E.g., c, c, c, cat = 3 repetitions; c, cat = 1 repetition
- Longer than 0.5 seconds more likely to be judged as stuttered
- 1 second mean, but can be much longer
FREQUENCY OF DISFLUENCIES
- Number of disfluencies per 100 words or syllables
- 10% on average is stuttered
- Large fluctuations depending on time of day or situation
What are some secondary behaviours of stuttering?
- Tense body movements
- Often in the head and neck
- May be covert. e.g., moving the toes (always need to ask)
- It is thought these behaviours develop as a coping mechanism to stop stuttering, but they have also been observed in children.
Some examples of secondary behaviours:
- Head jerks
- squinting
- facial grimaces
- clenching hands
- irregular inhalations
- tongue protusion
How can feelings and attitudes be affected in people who stutter?
Complex emotions can develop such as:
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Panic
- Frustration
- Shame
- Anger
These can occur both prior (anticipating the stutter), during and after stuttering
This can lead to avoidance behaviours
- saying own name
- speech situations (talking on the telephone)
- saying certain sounds
It is sometimes the emotional aspect that is bigger than the stutter itself
What are some conditions that influence stuttering (repeated readings of a passage)?
Repeated readings of a passage
- Adaptation effect: reading a passage 5 times, decreases stuttering frequency by half (on average)
- Consistency effect: stuttering tends to occur on the same words during repeated readings
- Adjacency effect: When stuttered words are removed from a passage, stuttering tends to occur near the removed ones during repeated readings
What are some conditions that influence stuttering (auditory feedback)?
Auditory feedback
- Delayed auditory feedback: can reduced or eliminate stuttering, created slow and unusual speech
- Altered auditory feedback: change pitch up or downwards
- Masking: noise presented through earphones eliminates feedback, reduces or eliminates stuttering
