The influence of phonetic complexity on stuttered speech

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to re-examine the influence of phonetic complexity on stuttering in young children through the use of the Word Complexity Measure (WCM). Parent–child conversations were transcribed for 14 children who stutter (mean age = 3 years, 7 months; SD = 11.20 months). Lexical and linguistic factors were accounted for during the analysis. Results indicate that phonetic complexity, as measured by WCM, did not exhibit a significant influence on the likelihood of stuttering. Findings support previous data that suggest stuttering in preschool-age children does not appear significantly related to phonetic complexity of the production.

Keywords:

• stuttering
• children
• Word Complexity Measure
• spontaneous speech

Acknowledgements

This research was funded in part by the grant F32 DC006755-01 (Phonological Encoding of Children who Stutter) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The authors thank the parents and children who participated in this study as well as our research assistants: Erin Castaneda, Melissa Chalef, Shannon Clark, Brittany Dyer, Angela Espinosa, Selina Gutierrez, Kelly Long, Kristen Mueller, Cara Patierno, Sarah Pequino, Olivia Reed, Elizabeth Rives and Leslie Wang. Authors extend a special thanks to Elizabeth Hampton, MA, CCC-SLP for data collection and Michael Mahometa, PhD for statistical consulting. The study was presented in part at the annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Philadelphia, PA, in November 2010 and in part at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, San Diego, CA in November 2011.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.