Exploring developmental changes in fluency as related to language acquisition: A case study

The present study traces the development of fluency in the context of langu age acquisition in a preschool child over the course of 1 year. Careful ana lyses of fluency, semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, and phonological behavior s were conducted on four spontaneous speech and language samples taken at a pproximately 4-month intervals. Documented are changes in fluency associate d with changes in language behaviors. In addition to presenting reflections on the nature of language and fluency interactions during language acquisi tion, this study outlines innovative methodologies for examining both fluen cy and language. Further, recommendations for the enhancement of the study of linguistic interactions in early speech and language development are off ered. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.