MOTHER AND CHILD SPEAKING RATES AND UTTERANCE LENGTHS IN ADJACENT FLUENT UTTERANCES - PRELIMINARY-OBSERVATIONS

Speech-Language Pathologists often recommend that parents of children who stutter reduce their own speaking rates and utterance lengths in a n apparent attempt to improve their children's speech fluency; however , it is not dear why such changes in parents' speech reduce children's stuttering. One possibility, given findings that children appear to s tutter less when they speak more slowly or use shorter utterances, is that the changes in parents' speaking rates and utterance lengths may lead to similar changes in children's speech, which, in turn, facilita te the children's fluency. The purpose of this study was to begin expl oring this possibility by examining relationships between parents' and children's speaking rates and utterance lengths in immediately adjace nt, perceptibly fluent utterances. Subjects were 20 mother-child dyads , including 10 boys who stutter (mean age = 58.5 months; range = 48 to 70 months) and 10 boys who do not stutter (mean age = 57.0 months; ra nge = 48 to 67 months). No significant differences were found between groups in either mothers' or children's speaking rates or utterance le ngths or in children's response time latencies, nor were any significa nt relationships found among these variables. However, a significant p ositive correlation was found between children's stuttering severity a nd the difference between mother and child speaking rates. Results ind icate that improvements in children's stuttering that accompany reduct ions in parents' speaking rates and utterance lengths may be related t o factors other than concomitant reductions in children's absolute spe aking rates and utterance lengths, for example, a reduction in the dif ference between parent and child speaking rates.