| Question | Answer |
| What is fluency? | Flow of speech production |
| What are the 5 characteristics to describe fluency? | Rate, rhythm, smoothness, effort, and automaticty |
| What is disfluency? | Disruption of flow of speech |
| What is a fluency disorder? | A speech disorder |
| How is disfluency characterized? | By high rate of stoppages/interruptions that disrupt flow of speech, and significantly interferes with communication. |
| What are the core primary features for stuttering? | Monosyllabic whole-word repetitions,
part-word repetitions,
sound prolongations (stretch words out)
blocks (like the road blocks of speech) |
| What are the secondary behaviors for stuttering (a fluency disorder)? | Head jerking or emotions/attitudes towards their stuttering. Second behaviors are developed overtime. |
| How many Americans currently stutter?
What percentage is this making up in the population? | 3 million Americans,
1% of the population |
| Who stutters more? Females or males? Who is more likely to recover? | Boys stutter more,
females are more likely to recover. |
| What is the percentage of positive family histories for stuttering? | 60-70% |
| What does the recovery look like for stuttering? | 4 years post-onset, ~75% recover |
| True or false: Disfluencies occur in normal communication. | True
Example: Using "um" or "like" |
| Etiology of stuttering? | UNKNOWN! |
| What are the approaches to stuttering treatment? | Stuttering modification (symptoms modification):
teach person to stutter better, more fluently,
easy voice onsets, light articulatory contacts
Fluency shaping: teach person to speak without stuttering;
reconstructing speech production. |
| What are the different roles of voice? | Carries words,
reflects personality,
reveals physical state,
delivers messages and adds meaning to the message. |
