The present study investigated a theory of the etiology and generalization of stuttering behavior. The subjects were 24 male students at a medical center who responded to advertisements requesting participation in a research project on learning and heart rate. The age range of the subjects was 22-28 years, and the mean age was 22.8 years. Three stimulus topic words were used in the present study. Two of these words were semantically equivalent. The independent variables were the three words that the subjects were instructed to discuss: neutral word condition, experimentally induced noxious word condition, and word semantically equivalent to the noxious word condition. The six dependent measures were percentage of part-word repetitions, percentage of interjections, heart-rate beats per minute, electromyographic microvolts per minute, galvanic skin response ohms conductance per minute, and self-report ratings of "state" anxiety. As predicted, heart rate and a self-report "state" anxiety measure achieved significance in a pattern corresponding to part-word repetitions. Two other measures of state anxiety (galvanic skin response and frontalis electromyographic activity) did not reach significance, although the results were in the predicted direction. The theory that "trait" anxiety accounts for susceptibility of fluency failure under emotional stress was not confirmed. The hypothesis offered here (that part-word repetitions generalize along a semantic dimension) received only tentative support. Discussion of the results centered around the demonstration in the present study of the need for multifaceted treatments tailored to the individual learning histories of specific stuttering behaviors, as well as molecular assessments of stuttering prior to treatment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness of stuttering in children ages three through seven who do and do not stutter, and to examine how their awareness might contribute to negative perceptions of persons who stutter. Participants included 12 children who stutter and 16 children who do not stutter. Each participant observed a 90-second Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) of two seal puppets employing appropriate turn-taking skills during a conversation. In this video, each puppet produced eight identical sentences. One puppet produced typically fluent speech characteristics. The other puppet produced disfluent speech characteristics. The participants answered 14 discrimination, self-identification, labeling, and evaluation questions to examine the awareness, perceptions, and social perceptions of stuttering. The participants were asked to identify with the puppet (fluent or disfluent) whose speech characteristics were most similar to their own. They also evaluated the puppets' use of disfluent and fluent speech to further examine personal responses to stuttering and determine whether specific characteristics of participants' stuttering patterns elicited negative peer responses. Results indicated no significant difference between the children who stutter and the children who do not stutter across the following measures: (1) awareness of stuttering, (2) perceptions of stuttering, and (3) social perceptions of stuttering. However, participants demonstrated emerging awareness that influenced negative perceptions of stuttering, as evidenced within each of the fluency groups. The percentage of children with an awareness of stuttering and resulting perceptions of stuttering was not significantly different from those participants with a limited awareness of stuttering. Analyses of individual fluency groups confirmed that awareness of stuttering impacted one's speech perceptions of stuttering, which influenced social perceptions of stuttering. / text

The literature suggests that self-disclosure of stuttering may positively impact the listener’s perception of persons who stutter. This phenomenon, although investigated with adults, has not been studied with regards to children who stutter. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-disclosure on listener perceptions of children who stutter. Specifically, this study examined whether listener perceptions of a child speaker who stutters are contingent upon the presence or absence of a self-disclosure statement prior to the speaker initiating his or her monologue, and whether listener perceptions are susceptible to gender bias. Child participants (n = 71) between the ages of 6 years, 0 months and 12 years, 11 months were randomly assigned to view two of the four possible videos (male self-disclosure, male no self-disclosure, female self-disclosure, and female no self-disclosure). Directly following the viewing of both videos, participants completed a survey analyzing their perceptions of the speaker for various traits related to personality and intelligence. Results for effects of self-disclosure achieved significance for all ten questions. With regard to gender, there was a significant difference for all questions except ‘more unintelligent’ and ‘less distracted’; however, when the gender viewing possibilities were compared across the three distinct groups (distinguished by whether the video pairing included the male speaker only, the female speaker only, or both a male and female speaker), there was no significant difference found. This suggests that the difference across responses are only present when all three gender groups are collapsed, which further indicates that gender did not have a distinct impact on the responses to the questions. Additionally, there was no significant interaction between self-disclosure and gender, suggesting that these two factors have independent, un-related influence on listener perception. In summary, the present findings indicate that the use of self-disclosure may positively impact children’s perceptions of other children who stutter, and that these perceptions are not uniquely impacted by gender. / text

Young children between the ages of two and six years often exhibit partword, whole word. and phrases repetitions as their language develops. This is also the age range when stutterertng most frequently appears. Consequently. speech-language pathologists need diagnostic criteria and evaluation tools to distinguish between the incipient stutterer and the normally disfluent child. Today a widely used evaluation tool is the Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI) (Riley, 1972, 1980). The SSI is designed to provide a severity level based upon the parameters of frequency. duration. and physical concomitants. Riley (1972) first designed the SSI to not include monosyllabic word repetitions in the frequency count: however. he revised the SSI in 1980 to include monosyllabic word repetitions without providing new normative data nor standardization. It was questionable as to whether the SSI was a sufficiently sensitive means to determine stuttering severity for young children and to whether or not it was strengthened or weakened by the addition of whole monosyllabic words.

This dissertation is comprised of three studies investigating the hypothesis that people who stutter (PWS) differ from people who do not stutter (PNS) in their motor skill learning abilities. The first study in this dissertation examined the ability to learn a novel sequential speech task following a 24-h retention period. Despite slower sequence durations compared to the PNS, PWS showed the ability to retain what they had learned for all measured variables on day one and following a 24-h consolidation period. The second study in this dissertation examined the ability to learn a sequential finger tapping task by observing the ability to produce the sequence under both tests of retention and interference. For tests of retention, PWS showed the ability to retain improvements in performance for all measured variables, albeit at slower speeds compared to PNS. For tests of interference, a significant interaction for reaction time and sequence duration revealed that PNS’ performance reached a relative plateau while PWS’ performance continued to show improvement. The third study in this dissertation investigated the extent to which individual differences in motor learning are associated with differences in stuttering treatment outcome. PWS participating in an intensive fluency treatment program were assessed for their working memory ability and their motor iii learning performance on a syllable reading and finger tapping task. Treatment success was measured at pre-treatment, post-treatment and six months follow-up using percent syllables stuttered, introspective clinical characteristics (OASES; Yaruss, 2010) and fluency effort. The relationship between motor learning and treatment outcome was examined using multiple regression analyses. Results did not support the hypothesis that the ability to learn a simple speech and nonspeech motor task is predictive of treatment outcome. Although treatment proved successful as evidenced by percent syllables stuttered and OASES scores, scores of fluency effort indicated that participants had not automated their newly learned fluency skills when speaking in everyday conversations. Together, these studies do not support the hypothesis of a motor learning deficit in PWS but rather support the assumption of limited motor abilities. Limited motor abilities are discussed as having implications to stuttering treatment outcome.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

This dissertation is comprised of three studies investigating the hypothesis that people who stutter (PWS) differ from people who do not stutter (PNS) in their motor skill learning abilities. The first study in this dissertation examined the ability to learn a novel sequential speech task following a 24-h retention period. Despite slower sequence durations compared to the PNS, PWS showed the ability to retain what they had learned for all measured variables on day one and following a 24-h consolidation period. The second study in this dissertation examined the ability to learn a sequential finger tapping task by observing the ability to produce the sequence under both tests of retention and interference. For tests of retention, PWS showed the ability to retain improvements in performance for all measured variables, albeit at slower speeds compared to PNS. For tests of interference, a significant interaction for reaction time and sequence duration revealed that PNS’ performance reached a relative plateau while PWS’ performance continued to show improvement. The third study in this dissertation investigated the extent to which individual differences in motor learning are associated with differences in stuttering treatment outcome. PWS participating in an intensive fluency treatment program were assessed for their working memory ability and their motor iii learning performance on a syllable reading and finger tapping task. Treatment success was measured at pre-treatment, post-treatment and six months follow-up using percent syllables stuttered, introspective clinical characteristics (OASES; Yaruss, 2010) and fluency effort. The relationship between motor learning and treatment outcome was examined using multiple regression analyses. Results did not support the hypothesis that the ability to learn a simple speech and nonspeech motor task is predictive of treatment outcome. Although treatment proved successful as evidenced by percent syllables stuttered and OASES scores, scores of fluency effort indicated that participants had not automated their newly learned fluency skills when speaking in everyday conversations. Together, these studies do not support the hypothesis of a motor learning deficit in PWS but rather support the assumption of limited motor abilities. Limited motor abilities are discussed as having implications to stuttering treatment outcome.

Five studies were performed to explore the feasibility of treating severe chronic stuttering with EMG feedback. EMG spiking from the throat was found to correlate with stuttering, and to differentiate between stuttering and fluent speech. EMG spiking tended to disappear when stuttering was reduced by metronome-paced speech and by speech therapy. Likewise, when EMG spiking was reduced by feedback training, stuttering was concurrently reduced. Presentation of the feedback tone without instructions or information produced no reduction in stuttering or EMG spiking. Pseudofeedback was also generally ineffective. It was concluded that the feedback effect is apparently not an artifact of instructions, masking, distraction, adaptation, slowing of speech, or of a stutter-contingent aversive tone, nor is it a Hawthorne or placebo effect. Implications of the results are discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The phenomena of disfluency clusters have been examined in the speech of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS). Little is known about disfluency clusters in the adult population. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of disfluency clusters in adults who stutter (AWS). The participants were ten AWS ranging in age from 18 to 60 (mean age = 35), with a stuttering severity of 9 to 30% (mean = 19%). Each participant provided a conversational speech sample of at least 300 words. Analysis focused on disfluency type, utterance length, speaking rate, and perceptual measures. Findings indicated that utterances containing disfluency clusters were significantly longer than fluent utterances and the speaking rate of fluent utterances was found to be significantly faster than that of disfluent utterances. Collectively the results appear to support a linguistic interpretation of disfluency clusters. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

People who stutter (PWS) tend to have increased levels of anxiety compared to people who do not stutter (PWNS), particularly in social situations (Messenger, Onslow, Packman, & Menzies, 2004). In addition, children who stutter (CWS) as young as 3 years of age reportedly have more negative communication attitudes than their fluent peers, and these attitudes appear to worsen with age and stuttering severity (De Nil & Brutten, 1990, 1991; Vanryckeghem, Brutten, & Hernandez, 2005). The present study sought to examine generalized anxiety and communication apprehension in preschool CWS. Seven CWS aged between 3;3 and 4;11 years, and seven sex and age-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS) provided salivary cortisol samples at three distinct sampling times across a one-week period. They additionally provided a conversational speech sample, and were administered the Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children Who Stutter (Vanryckeghem & Brutten, 2007). Parents were required to complete the Preschool Anxiety Scale (Spence & Rapee, 1999) to provide estimates of their child's anxiety level. Results revealed no significant differences between CWS and CWNS in generalized anxiety or communication apprehension. No relationships were found between stuttering severity and generalized anxiety or communication apprehension either. Thus, it is concluded that generalized anxiety and communication apprehension are not associated with early childhood stuttering. Any changes in anxiety levels are likely to occur with increased chronological age and stuttering chronicity.