Final part-word repetitions in school-age children: Two case studies

End-Word Dysfluencies in Young Children: A Clinical Report

“…Details of the children with EWDs in the six extant reports [6,7,8,9,10,11] are shown in table 1, with examples of their EWDs when these could be confirmed. The children had no history of neurological insult or syndrome, except 1 child in the study by Van Borsel et al [11].…”

“…Some of the children in these studies were reported to have typical stuttering as well. Mowrer [9] and McAllister and Kingston [8] reported that the children in their study also produced ‘broken words', although very infrequently. McAllister and Kingston [[8], p. 259] defined broken words as ‘cessation of airflow or phonation within a word'.…”

“…Van Borsel et al [11] reported a child who started producing EWDs sometime during the school-age years, but they remitted with treatment. One child reported by McAllister and Kingston [8] had transient stuttering, followed by EWDs, while the other child only produced EWDs. The apparently transient nature of EWDs in children is consistent with the lack of reports of them in adults with typical developmental stuttering and/or without the neurological conditions or syndromes referred to above.…”

“…There is no consensus among the authors of these reports as to the origins of EWDs (for discussions see [8,10,11]). Linguistic, phonological and psychological factors have all been hypothesized to play a role.…”

“…Interestingly, Stansfield [12] noted that even though EWDs are rare in stuttered speech, they need not necessarily be excluded from this diagnosis and Lebrun and Van Borsel [[7], p. 112] suggested that EWDs are ‘akin to, and even may be a symptom of, stuttering'. McAllister and Kingston [8] explored the idea that EWDs may not be thought of as a disorder at all, if the speaker is unaware of them.…”