Coexistence of stuttering and disordered phonology in young children

The purpose of the present study was to assess differences in stuttering, phonological, and diadochokinetic behaviors in young children who exhibit both stuttering and disordered phonology and children who exhibit only one of the disorders. Subjects were 21 male children (aged 4 to 6 years), representing three groups of seven children each: (a) stuttering and normal phonological abilities (S+NP), (b) stuttering and disordered phonology (S+DP), and (c) normal fluency and disordered phonology (NF+DP). Stuttering behavior was assessed during a 30-minute conversational speech task; phonological behavior was assessed during a 162 item picture-naming task; and diadochokinetic abilities were assessed during bi- and multisyllable productions. Results indicated that the S+DP group produced significantly more sound prolongations and significantly fewer iterations per whole-word repetition than the S+NP group. However, there were no differences between the two groups in other stuttering indices. Moreover, no differences were noted between the S+DP and NF+DP groups in phonological behavior. Diadochokinetic rates did not differ among the three groups. The possibility of two types of stuttering, one occurring with and one without disordered phonology, is discussed.