Expressive Language Intratest Scatter of Preschool-Age Children Who Stutter

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess intratest scatter (variability) on standardized tests of expressive language by preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS). Method Participants were 40 preschool-age CWS and 46 CWNS. Between-group comparisons of intratest scatter were made based on participant responses to the Expressive subtest of the Test of Early Language Development – 3 (TELD-Exp; Hresko, Reid, & Hamill, 1999) and the Expressive Vocabulary Test 2 (EVT-2; Williams, 2007). Within-group correlational analyses between intratest scatter and stuttering frequency and severity were also conducted for CWS. Results Findings indicated that, for CWS, categorical scatter on the EVT-2 was positively correlated with their stuttering frequency. No significant between-group differences in intratest scatter were found on the TELD-Exp or the EVT-2. Conclusions Consistent with earlier findings, variability in speech-language performance appears to be related to CWS’ stuttering, a finding taken to suggest an underlying cognitive-linguistic variable (e.g., cognitive load) may be common to both variables.

Novel Word Recognition in Childhood Stuttering

“…Importantly, both children who stutter and children who do not stutter exhibited similar performance across all measures. These patterns are consistent with previous findings that demonstrate comparable performance between children who stutter and children who do not stutter on other tasks that tap into semantic skills in a variety of ways, including standardized vocabulary assessments (e.g., Millager et al, 2014; Singer et al, 2020), picture naming (Bernstein Ratner et al, 2009), and lexical diversity in spontaneous speech (e.g., Luckman et al, 2020; Watkins et al, 1999). These findings are also aligned with electrophysiology studies that revealed generally intact neural processes for semantics in children who stutter (Kreidler et al, 2017; Usler & Weber-Fox, 2015; Weber-Fox et al, 2013).…”

“…Further, children who stutter have been found to have weaker receptive and expressive vocabulary compared to children who do not stutter (e.g., Choo et al, 2016; Luckman et al, 2020; cf. Millager et al, 2014; Singer et al, 2020), which may have implications for language formulation and fluent speech production (e.g., Smith & Weber, 2017). One common experimental approach to studying word learning is to teach novel words through fast mapping (e.g., Bion et al, 2013; Carey, 1978; Kucker et al, 2015).…”

Τραυλισμός (Βατταρισμός) Και Ειδική Αναπτυξιακή Διαταραχή Του Λόγου Και Της Ομιλίας Σε Παιδιά Προσχολικής Ηλικίας

“…Οι ανισσοροπίες αυτές που έχουν βρεθεί ανάμεσα στα παιδιά που τραυλίζουν και σε αυτά που δεν τραυλίζουν μπορεί να σχετίζονται με μία τρίτη μεταβλητή εκτός από το λόγο, την ομιλία και τον τραυλισμό όπως π.χ. να σχετίζονται με την προσοχή ή το γνωστικό φορτίο (Millager et al, 2014).…”