(PARA)LINGUISTIC FACTORS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD STUTTERING

这项研究将评估几个广泛持有的，但在很大程度上未经检验的假设，目前的理论和临床实践中的儿童口吃。这些假设是基于这样的概念，即儿童的各种类型的言语中断（言语错误，正常的不流利和口吃的不流利）的产生受到他们的言语的某些特征的影响，例如他们的话语的长度和复杂性（语言特征），以及他们的说话速度和反应延迟（非语言特征）。研究设计包括五项研究，将系统地评估儿童的言语特征与他们的言语错误，正常不流利和口吃不流利的生产之间的关系，通过测量儿童的流利性变化，同时实验操作：（a）儿童的话语长度和句法复杂性（研究1）;（B）儿童的语速和反应潜伏期（研究2）;（c）儿童会话伙伴的言语特征（研究3）。除了检验影响儿童流利性的因素外，本研究还将评估最近理论中提出的对言语不流利的根本原因的解释，并试图根据言语中断时的声学特征客观地区分被判定为正常的不流利与口吃的不流利（研究4）。最后，为了更全面地研究言语运动能力在儿童言语不流利的产生中所起的作用，我们将在一个扩展的双向运动任务中比较口吃儿童和不口吃儿童的口腔运动速度、准确性和流畅性（研究5）。这些研究的结果将有助于评估和完善突出的口吃理论，通过评估影响儿童流利性的因素的关键假设，并通过检查正常和口吃的不流利之间的差异。研究结果还将有助于改善口吃儿童的诊断和治疗，方法是帮助临床医生评估最能表明口吃的不同类型的言语中断，并评估儿童口吃流行治疗方法的核心假设。

This research will evaluate several widely held but largely untested assumptions underlying current theory and clinical practice in childhood stuttering. These assumptions are based on the notion that children's production of various types of speech disruptions (speech errors, normal disfluencies, and stuttered disfluencies) are influenced by certain characteristics of their speech, such as the length and complexity of their utterances (linguistic characteristics), and their speaking rate and response latency (paralinguistic characteristics). The research design includes five studies that will systematically evaluate the relationship between children's speech characteristics and their production of speech errors, normal disfluencies, and stuttered disfluencies by measuring change in children's fluency while experimentally manipulating: (a) children's utterance length and syntactic complexity (Study l), (b) children's speaking rate and response latency (Study 2), and (c) children's conversational partner's speech characteristics (Study 3). in addition to examining factors that affect children's fluency, this research will evaluate explanations for the underlying cause of speech disfluencies proposed in recent theories and attempt to objectively differentiate between disfluencies judged to be normal vs. stuttered, based on the acoustic characteristics of the moment of speech interruption (Study 4). Finally, to more fully examine the role speech motor abilities play in children's production of speech disfluencies, children who stutter and children who do not stutter will be compared in terms of the rate, accuracy, and fluency of their oral motor movements in an expanded diadochokinetic task (Study 5). Results from these studies will help evaluate and refine prominent theories of stuttering by evaluating key assumptions about the factors affecting children's fluency and by examining the differences between normal and stuttered disfluencies. Results will also help improve the diagnosis and treatment of children who stutter by helping clinicians evaluate different types of speech disruptions most indicative of stuttering and by evaluating several assumptions at the heart of prevailing treatments for childhood stuttering.