Changes in the pattern of stuttering over development for children who recover or persist

Three schemes for assessing stuttering were compared. They differed with respect to whether they included whole-word repetitions as characteristics more typical of stuttering. Persistent and recovered groups of children were examined to see whether: (1) one of the schemes differentiated the groups better than others; (2) more and less typical of stuttering characteristics changed over ages in different ways for the groups; and (3) the changes over ages of more and less typical of stuttering classes depended on word type. Twenty-six children who stuttered were classified as persistent or recovered and recorded at three ages between 8-12+ years. Stuttering characteristics were obtained according to the three schemes. The results show: (1) All schemes distinguished persistent, from recovered, children. (2) The proportion of less typical of stuttering characteristics increased and more typical of stuttering characteristics decreased over age for recovered children for all three schemes (there was no change for persistent children). (3) The increased proportion of less typical of stuttering characteristics for the recovered children across age was more apparent for one-syllable content words than one-syllable function words.