(PARA)LINGUISTIC FACTORS AFFECTING CHILDHOOD STUTTERING

这项研究将评估几个广泛持有，但很大程度上未经检验的假设，这些假设是当前儿童口吃理论和临床实践的基础。这些假设是基于这样一种观念，即儿童产生各种类型的言语中断（言语错误、正常不流利和口吃不流利）受到他们说话的某些特征的影响，比如他们说话的长度和复杂性（语言特征），以及他们的说话速度和反应延迟（副语言特征）。研究设计包括五项研究，通过测量儿童流利程度的变化，通过实验操作，系统地评估儿童言语特征与言语错误、正常不流利和口吃不流利之间的关系：(a)儿童的话语长度和句法复杂性（研究1），(b)儿童的语速和反应延迟（研究2），以及(c)儿童对话伙伴的言语特征（研究3）。除了研究影响儿童流利程度的因素外，本研究还将评估最近理论提出的对言语不流利的潜在原因的解释，并试图客观区分被判断为正常与口吃的不流利。基于语音中断时刻的声学特征（研究4）。最后，为了更充分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代动力学任务中比较口吃儿童和非口吃儿童的言语运动速度、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口吃的主要理论，通过评估影响儿童流利程度的因素的关键假设，并通过检查正常和口吃不流利之间的差异。通过帮助临床医生评估最能说明口吃的不同类型的言语障碍，以及评估儿童口吃主流治疗方法的几个假设，研究结果也将有助于改善口吃儿童的诊断和治疗。

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.