SPEECH FLUENCY DEMONSTRATED BY CHILDREN WITH TOURETTE SYNDROME

Abstract

Children with Tourette Syndrome (CWTS) frequently exhibit a high prevalence of disfluent speech behaviors which are often labeled stuttering. The present study analyzed the fluency characteristics of CWTS, in comparison to children who stutter (CWS) and typically developing peers (TDP). It was predicted that CWTS would be less fluent than TDP but more fluent than CWS. A related purpose was to explore whether differences existed in the pattern of disfluencies demonstrated by these groups. To this end, it was predicted that CWTS would demonstrate significantly lower proportions of stuttering-like disfluencies than CWS and significantly higher proportions of stuttering-like disfluencies than TDP. Participants included eight CWTS, eight CWS and eight TDP. Speech samples, collected during a narrative story telling task, were analyzed to determine whether significant differences in the type and frequency of disfluencies were evident between the groups. Results revealed that CWTS were significantly more fluent than CWS and that CWTS produced significantly lower proportions of stuttering-like disfluencies than CWS. Although not statistically significant, CWTS were twice as disfluent as TDP and CWTS produced significantly higher proportions of stuttering-like disfluencies than TDP. These findings confirmed that CWTS present with an atypical disfluency pattern which can be differentiated from that of CWS and TDP based on the total disfluency level and the proportion of stuttering-like disfluencies.