Solving the mystery of intermittent fluency breaks in a preschool child: chronic stuttering or normal fluency breaks?

The possibility of chronic stuttering is investigated in a preschool boy with a brief history of intermittent fluency breaks. The variability of the behavior adds to the mystery and makes the diagnosis of unusual or stuttering-like fluency breaks particularly difficult. Clues for solving this mystery are obtained from both the child and his parents. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors are considered, and the child's capacity for producing fluent speech is stressed during a formal evaluation to determine the effect of communicative demands. Detective work by the investigator takes the reader through a series of diagnostic decisions that eventually leads to cracking the case.

Vowel production in a prelinguistic child following cochlear implantation.

Formant frequencies were determined from vocalic utterances of a prelinguistically deafened child implanted with a Nucleus 22-channel device at age 5 years. Speech samples were obtained from recordings of speech made 5 and 2 months prior to implantation and at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months post implantation. Prior to implantation, first formant values showed a greater range than those of normal hearing children of comparable age, and second formant values showed a greatly reduced range and clustered around a mean of 1800 Hz. By 36 months post implantation, first formant values approximated age-matched norms. By 6 months post implantation, higher second formant values were apparent. A progressive shift in second formant values was noted through 36 months post implantation when the vocalic space most closely corresponded to age-matched normative data.

The automatic extraction of pitch perturbation using microcomputers: some methodological considerations.

A program for the automatic extraction of jitter (PAEJ) was developed for the clinical measurement of pitch perturbations using a microcomputer. The program currently includes 12 implementations of an algorithm for marking the boundary criteria for a fundamental period of vocal fold vibration. The relative sensitivity of these extraction procedures for identifying the pitch period was compared using sine waves. Data obtained to date provide information for each procedure concerning the effects of waveform peakedness and slope, sample duration in cycles, noise level of the analysis system with both direct and tape recorded input, and the influence of interpolation. Zero crossing extraction procedures provided lower jitter values regardless of sine wave frequency or sample duration. The procedures making use of positive- or negative-going zero crossings with interpolation provided the lowest measures of jitter with the sine wave stimuli. Pilot data obtained with normal-speaking adults indicated that jitter measures varied as a function of the speaker, vowel, and sample duration.

The effects of emotional arousal and increased speaking rate on children's newly learned (r) productions.

Generalization of newly learned phones into spontaneous speech remains a serious problem for many children with articulation disorders. It has been suggested that generalization may be governed, at least in part, by the stability of the new phone. Various clinicians have argued that response stability, in turn, may be affected by emotion and speaking rate. The present study was designed to determine whether children's newly learned (r) phones would be adversely affected by unpleasant emotions and/or faster than normal speaking rates. Sixteen misarticulating children retold a story after frustration and no frustration procedures, in combination with slow and fast slide presentations. In contrast to previous clinical assumptions, no significant differences in subjects' (r) productions were found among the conditions. The research implications and limitations, and suggestions for future research, are discussed.

Self-efficacy scaling by adult stutterers.

A scale was developed for estimating adult stutterers' confidence for entering and maintaining fluency in a variety of speaking situations. This Self-Efficacy Scale for Adult Stutterers (SESAS) was administered to 20 adult stutterers along with the shortened form of the Erickson Scale of Communication Attitudes and the Perceptions of Stuttering Inventory. Twenty nonstuttering adults were also given the SESAS the self-efficacy scores significantly differentiated between stutterers and nonstutterers. SESAS scores were correlated with the Erickson Scale (-0.71) and the Perceptions of Stuttering Inventory (-0.52). A correlation of -0.51 was found for SESAS scores and stutterers' self-ratings of severity. Test-retest reliability for the SESAS averaged 0.89. The results suggest that with continued development, self-efficacy scaling may be a useful technique for measuring one aspect of change during treatment.

Ear asymmetry for monaurally presented word lists in children and adults.

In order to study ear asymmetry during monaural stimulation, 80 listeners were asked to recall the word which followed a probe word in 40, 10-word lists. Subjects were divided into four age groups: 7-9, 13-16, 25-30, and 60+ years. Probe words occurred in early (position 2) or late (position 7) in each 10 word list. Superior recall accuracy was shown when words were presented to the right ear of 48 subjects. 12 subjects demonstrated superior left ear performance, and 20 subjects performed equally well in each ear. Subjects showing superior right ear performance also demonstrated superior overall performance. Older children and younger adults performed significantly better than younger children or older adults. The factor of subject sex was not significant. Ear asymmetry during monaural stimulation appeared to be related to competition between incoming and rehearsed stimuli during central memory processing.

Ear asymmetry for recall of monaurally presented words.

In order to test for ear asymmetry using monaural stimulation, 30 adult listeners were presented a series of ten-word lists and asked to recall words from early (position three) and late (position eight) positions in each list. Significantly better performance was obtained when the word lists were presented to the right ear of the subjects. Words occurring in position eight were recalled more accurately than words that occurred in position three. Ear asymmetry during monaural stimulation appeared to be related, at least in part, to competition between incoming and rehearsed stimuli during central memory processing.

Articulatory effects of monaural and binaural masking in normal speaking adults wearing palatal appliances.

Ten normal speaking adults (five male, five female) performed three speaking tasks during conditions of monaural and binaural masking with and without complete palatal appliances. Significant effects on the subjects' articulation were found for the factors of masking type, palatal appliance and speaking task. No significant effects were found for monaural right- versus monaural left-ear masking or sex of the speakers. The findings are similar to previous results using binaural masking and indicate that the disruptive effect of monaural masking on the articulation of adult subjects is approximately midway between the effects of no masking and binaural masking. It is suggested that the lack of a significant effect for right-ear versus left-ear monaural masking may be due to the high degree of automatization which subjects possessed for the stimuli used in the speaking tasks.

A right-ear effect for auditory feedback control of children's newly acquired phonemes.

To determine the relative importance of binaural, right-ear, and left-ear auditory feedback control on the correct production of newly acquired articulatory patterns in children, 40 children exhibiting misarticulations were tested under four experimental conditions. The children were individually administered a shortened version of the Deep Test of Articulation (McDonald, 1964) under (1) a no-masking condition, followed in a counterbalanced order by readministration of the Deep Test under conditions of (2) binaural masking, (3) monaural right-ear masking, and (4) monaural left-ear masking. Correct articulatory production by the children was significantly reduced under binaural and monaural right-ear masking. There was, however, no significant reduction in the children's correct production under the condition of monaural left-ear masking. The results extend previous findings of right-ear superiority for children's auditory processing of externally produced stimuli to the closed-loop auditory feedback control of children's own speech production.

Using competing speech to estimate articulatory automatization in children: the possible effect of masking level and subject grade.

In order to study the possible influence of masking level and subject grade on a procedure for determining a child's articulatory automatization (Manning et al., 1976) 47 first and second grade and 49 third and fourth grade children were administered the McDonald Deep Test of Articulation under one of five conditions of auditory masking (earphones only, or presentation of competing speech at 50, 60, 70, or 80 dB SPL). Results indicated no significant difference in subject performance across the factors of masking level and subject grade. The findings suggest that these factors do not appear to be critical in the clinical application of the suggested procedure for estimating children's automatization of newly acquired phonemes.

The use of time-expanded speech in the identification of part-word repetitions of stutterers.

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the possibility of using time-expanded speech to aid clinicians in the identification of one-, two-, and three-unit repetitions of stutterers. Tape-recorded samples of nine stutterers (five adults and four children) were time-expanded to 0%, 150%, and 200% of original time. Thirty graduate student clinicians listened individually to the speech samples under the three listening conditions. The three conditions were presented in a counterbalanced order. Clinicians were asked to indicate each occurrence of one-, two-, or three-unit part-word repetitions on a response sheet. Results indicated that time expansion of the stutterers' speech by 150% or 200% of the original time resulted in significantly (P less than 0.05) more accurate identification one-unit part-word repetitions. Time expansion did not, however, provide a perceptual advantage for the identification of two- and three-unit part-word repetitions. Implications for clinical application and further investigation are discussed.

Automatization of correct production at two levels of articulatory acquisition.

This study investigated the assumption that children who are in the process of acquiring correct production of a misarticulated phoneme are also in the process of developing automatization of correct production. Using the McDonald Deep Test of Articulation, children's articulation was tested under two conditions: Condition 1 without masking and Condition 2 with 85 dB SLP of competing speech masking. Children were classified into one of two levels of articulatory acquisition according to their performance during Condition 1. Children scoring below 80% correct were classsified as demonstrating low acquisition. Children scoring above 80% correct were classified as demonstrating high acquisition. Only children with /s/ or /r/ misarticulations were studied. Results indicated that the correct articulation of children demonstrating low acquisition was significantly more affected by the auditory masking than the correct articulation of those children demonstrating higher levels of acquisition. There was no significant difference in the performance of the children with the /s/ or /r/ misarticulations. The results support the concept that articulatory acquisition and automatization of correct articulation relate in a predictable manner.

The performance of children with auditory perceptual disorders on a time-compressed speech discrimination measure.

A time-compressed version of the PB-K 50 speech discrimination measure was administered to 20 children diagnosed as displaying auditory perceptual disorders. Results indicated that these children performed equally well at both 0 and 30% time compression. Performance decreased significantly at 60% time compression. Comparison of the results with normative data indicated that performance of the two groups of children was similar at the 30% time compression condition but that children with auditory perceptual disorders performed poorer at both 0 and 60% time compression. The results were discussed relative to short-term memory abilities.

Auditory assembly abilities of stuttering and nonstuttering children.

The auditory assembly abilities of 30 stuttering and 30 nonstuttering children were investigated. Subjects were first- through fourth-grade children matched for age, grade level, sex, and misarticulations. They were individually presented four tape-recorded lists of both meaningful and nonmeaningful CVC syllables with one of four silent interphonemic intervals (100, 200, 300, or 400 msec) spliced between the phonemes of each syllable. There was no significant overall difference between the performance of the stuttering and the nonstuttering children. The results failed to support the findings of previous investigations which have suggested that stutterers are less adept than nonstutterers in the performance of auditory processing tasks.

The use of auditory masking to estimate automatization of correct articulatory production.

In order to estimate automatization of correct articulatory production in 71 elementary school children about to be dismissed from training, auditory masking was used during administration of the Deep Test of Articulation. White noise was presented binaurally at 86 dB SPL. The children's articulation was tested under three conditions: Condition I without masking, Condition II with masking, and Condition III without masking three to four months after Condition II testing. Children's performances on Conditions I and II were compared with their performances during Condition III. Results demonstrated that performance on the Deep Test during auditory masking as a criterion for dismissal would have resulted in children being correctly dismissed from therapy more of the time (94%) than the traditional (nonmasked) administration of the test (77%). In addition, use of experimental administration of the test would have resulted in 6% of the children being incorrectly dismissed from therapy while traditional administration would have resulted in 23% of the children being incorrectly dismissed. Clinical importance and implications for further investigation are discussed.