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This study evaluated the language production capabilities of 32 young children whose stuttering followed divergent paths: one group whose stuttering persisted, one group who stuttered relatively briefly and recovered, and one group who stuttered for a longer period prior to recovery. Three indices of language production (mean length of utterance, number of different words, and number of total words) were obtained from spontaneous language samples. Measures of language production were calculated from samples collected at an initial visit near stuttering onset and at a one-year follow-up visit. Results revealed that the majority of the children who stuttered performed within the average range on these measures of language production. One child, a child whose stuttering persisted, consistently performed below the average range on all measures. Comparison of the three groups revealed greater variability, as well as atypical patterns of development, in the language production skills of children whose stuttering persisted. These findings suggest that although language production deficits do not appear to be widespread in children who stutter, examination of individual patterns of performance is central to clarifying the developmental relationship between language proficiency and the production of fluent speech.
KEY WORDS: stuttering, language proficiency, persistence, recovery
Potential associations between stuttering and language in early childhood are suggested by several related observations. First, stuttering onset in children under age 3 often coincides with qualitative and quantitative advances in children's development of articulation, phonology, morphology, and syntax (Chevekeva,1967; Levina,1963; Ratner, 1997; Yairi, 1983; Yairi & Ambrose, 1992a, 1992b). In this respect, it is interesting to point out that the onset of stuttering typically occurs after a period when the child's speech was regarded as normally fluent. In contrast, language and phonological disorders are often identified when normal developments fail to occur, not as an interruption of already established skills (Yairi & Ambrose, 1992b). The loss of normal fluency at the time when linguistic skills are under rapid expansion suggests potential interference or trade-offs in speech-language production.
Second, several scholars have found that particular linguistic variables, such as sentence length and complexity, contribute to fluency breakdown (Gaines, Runyan, & Meyers,1991; Gordon,1991; Kadi-Hanifi & Howell, 1992; Logan & Conture, 1995; Ratner & Sih, 1987; Wall, Starkweather, & Cairns, 1981). For example, it is well documented that instances of...