Verbal fluency and lexical production in 24-month-old children with a family history of stuttering

Comparison for prognostic purposes

Abstract

The research project “Phonetic indexes predictive of chronic stuttering in preschool children” (CNR: RSTL 995, 2007) aimed at identifying clinical phonetic and psychological indexes in preschool children with familiarity to stuttering, in order to early discriminate those at greater risk for chronic stuttering. Forty children were audio- and video recorded at 24 months of age, and those who later started to stutter (N = 14) were assessed every 3 months up to 48 months post-onset. At 24 months of age, the stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) were assessed in a representative sample of connected speech. Lexical age data was collected through parents reports. Future stutterers exhibited a SLD percentage significantly greater than future non stutterers and showed a lexical delay, although statistically non significant.