SPEECH-MOTOR AND LINGUISTIC SKILLS OF YOUNG STUTTERERS PRIOR TO ONSET

Theorists have increasingly suggested that both speech-motor and lingu istic factors are involved in the etiology of stuttering. This content ion has been supported by findings that tend to indicate that youngste rs who stutter have a slower speech rate and are less linguistically s killed than nonstutterers. However, no inferences can be drawn from th ese findings as to the nature or the causation of this disorder. This is because the aforementioned findings might be a result rather than a cause of the disorder. In order to clarify the directionality issue, a multi-year prospective study was undertaken that involved 93 prescho ol children with a parental history of stuttering. At the initial sess ion, none of the high-risk children sampled was regarded as having a s tuttering problem. One year later, 26 children were classified as stut terers. Statistical analyses revealed that prior to the onset of stutt ering these children did not differ from the other youngsters studied with respect to either their receptive or expressive language abilitie s. However, their rate of articulation was significantly faster. The l atter finding is taken to mean that the children who developed stutter ing were not limited in speech-motor ability. Rather, their fluency fa ilures are seen as a result of a relatively high articulation rate. It is noteworthy, in this regard, that the rate of the high-risk childre n who continued to be viewed as nonstutterers was slower than that pre viously reported for youngsters of their age. This suggests that the s lower rate served as a buffer against fluency breakdown.