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A fluency impairment is characterized by an abnormally high frequency or duration of stoppages in the forward flow of speech. These stoppages usually take the form of (a) repetitions of sounds, syllables, or one-syllable words, (b) prolongations of sounds, or (c) "blocks" of airflow or voicing in speech. Some children show signs of physical tension and increased speech rate, which suggests that they are reacting to their speech difficulty.
There are three components of stuttering:
1. Core behaviors: repetitions, prolongations and blocks
2. Secondary behaviors: learned reactions to the core behaviors
a. escape behaviors: when the speaker is stuttering
and attempts to terminate the stutter and finish the
word (examples: eye blinks, head nods, or
interjections of extra sounds, such as "uh")
b. avoidance behaviors: when a speaker
anticipates stuttering and recalls the negative
experiences he has had when stuttering (example:
changing the word he/she was planning to say)
3. Feeling and Attitudes: feelings that result from stuttering may include not only frustration and embarrassment, but fear of future stuttering, shame about stuttering, and hostility toward listeners as well.
Guitar, Barry. (1998). Stuttering: An Integrated Approach to Its Nature and Treatment, 2nd ed. Baltimore, Maryland: Lippincott Williams & Wilkings.
For more information about fluency/stuttering click on the following links:
http://www.stutteringhelp.org
Stuttering
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Website updated on: Sunday, February 28, 2010
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