This thesis investigated the speech-gesture relationship of chronic adult stutterers in comparison to fluent controls based on previous work by McNeill (1979, 1986). Significant differences were found in the speech and gesture characteristics of the narratives of stutterers as compared to fluent controls on a cartoon retelling task. Stutterers produced fewer cartoon details in their speech and fewer meanings per gesture. As well, stutterers were unable to begin a representational gesture at the same moment as a stuttered disfluency resulting in the freezing of gestures or maintaining the hand at rest. A second experiment showed that stutterers were able to maintain and initiate non-communicative hand movements at the same moment as stuttering. Gesture did not replace speech during moments of stuttering even though manual movement during stuttering was possible. The results demonstrate the strength of the speech-gesture relationship and show that stuttering affects both modalities of expression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.69730 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Scoble, Joselynne |
| Contributors | Mayberry, R. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (School of Human Communication Disorders.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001351722, proquestno: AAIMM91844, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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