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. 2015 Sep:45:12-26.
doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2015.05.004. Epub 2015 Jun 1.

Relation of motor, linguistic and temperament factors in epidemiologic subtypes of persistent and recovered stuttering: Initial findings

Nicoline G Ambrose  1 , Ehud Yairi  2 , Torrey M Loucks  2 , Carol Hubbard Seery  3 , Rebecca Throneburg  4
Affiliations

Relation of motor, linguistic and temperament factors in epidemiologic subtypes of persistent and recovered stuttering: Initial findings

Nicoline G Ambrose et al. J Fluency Disord. 2015 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of any patterns reflecting underlying subtypes of persistence and recovery across epidemiologic, motor, language, and temperament domains in the same group of children beginning to stutter and followed for several years.

Methods: Participants were 58 2-4-year-old CWS and 40 age and gender matched NFC from four different sites in the Midwest. At the end of the multi-year study, stuttering children were classified as Persistent or Recovered. The same protocol obtaining data to measure stuttering, motor, language and temperament characteristics was used at each site. They have not been included in previous reports.

Results: The Persistent group performed consistently differently from the Recovered and Control groups. They performed lower on standardized language tests and in phonological accuracy, had greater kinematic variability, and were judged by their parents to be more negative in temperament.

Conclusions: The present study provides data supporting the hypothesis that subtypes of stuttering can be identified along persistency/recovery lines, but results were not definitive.

Educational objectives: Readers will be able to (a) describe the current state of subtypes of stuttering research; (b) summarize possible contributions of epidemiologic, motoric, linguistic and temperament to such subtyping with regard to persistency and recovery.

Keywords: Longitudinal; Persistence and recovery; Stuttering; Subtypes.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Means and standard errors for disfluency measures (part-word repetitions (PW), single syllable word repetitions (SS), disrhythmic phonation (DP) and repetition units (RU) as Z-scores across visits.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Means and standard errors for spatio-temporal index (STI) and fundamental frequency onset and offset variability as standard deviation (SD) across visits.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Means and standard errors for standardized language test scores (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), Expressive Vocabulary Test (EVT), and Test of Language Development receptive (TELD-R) and expressive (TELD-E) across visits.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Means and standard errors for phonological percent accuracy for late-developing phonemes across visits.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Means and standard errors for Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) subscale scores across visits.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ambrose N, Yairi E. Normative data for early childhood stuttering. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research. 1999;42:895–909. - PubMed
    1. Ambrose N, Cox N, Yairi E. The genetic basis of persistent and recovered stuttering. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research. 1997;40:567–580. - PubMed
    1. Anderson JD, Pellowski MW, Conture EG, Kelly EM. Temperamental characteristics of young children who stutter. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 2003;46:1221–1233. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arenas RM, Zebrowski PM, Moon JB. Phonetically governed voicing onset and offset in preschool children who stutter. Journal of Fluency Disorders. 2012;37.3:179–187. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berlin CI. Stuttering: a review of neurological data and theories. Madison, WI: Unpublished master thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1954.

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