Related Experiment Videos
Another case of word-final disfluencies
John Van Borsel1, Elke Geirnaert, Rudy Van Coster
1Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. john.vanborsel@ugent.be
Summary
This study found that word-final disfluencies, often overlooked, were the primary stuttering type in a 12-year-old boy. Therapy successfully eliminated these speech disfluencies.
Area of Science:
- Speech-language pathology
- Linguistics
- Neurology
Background:
- Commonly, stuttering and disfluencies are not expected at the end of words.
- However, word-final disfluencies have been documented and may be underreported.
Observation:
- This case study focused on a 12-year-old boy with significant word-final disfluencies.
- These disfluencies constituted the majority of his speech disfluencies.
- They primarily involved repetitions of linguistic units larger than single consonants.
Findings:
- Word-final disfluencies occurred more often on content words than function words.
- They were more frequent in multisyllabic words compared to monosyllabic words.
- Disfluencies appeared more frequently at phrase endings than in initial or medial positions.
Implications:
- A direct therapy approach targeting identification and suppression of final repetitions led to complete elimination of these disfluencies.
- The study discusses the potential origins of these word-final disfluencies and their similarity to palilalia.
- Findings suggest a need to reconsider the typical understanding of stuttering patterns and their therapeutic management.