Preliminary Evidence That Growth in Productive Language Differentiates Childhood Stuttering Persistence and Recovery

Abstract

Purpose: Childhood stuttering is common but is often outgrown. Children whose stuttering persists experience significant life impacts, calling for a better understanding of what factors may underlie eventual recovery. In previous research, language ability has been shown to differentiate children who stutter (CWS) from children who do not stutter, yet there is an active debate in the field regarding what, if any, language measures may mark eventual recovery versus persistence. In this study, we examined whether growth in productive language performance may better predict the probability of recovery compared to static profiles taken from a single time point. Method: Productive syntax and vocabulary diversity growth rates were calculated for 50 CWS using random coefficient models. Logistic regression models were then used to determine whether growth rates uniquely predict likelihood of recovery, as well as if these rates were predictive over and above currently identified correlates of stuttering onset and recovery. Results: Different linguistic profiles emerged between children who went on to recover versus those who persisted. Children who had steeper productive syntactic growth, but not vocabulary diversity growth, were more likely to recover by study end. Moreover, this effect held after controlling for initial language ability at study onset as well as demographic covariates. Conclusions: Results are discussed in terms of how growth estimates can be incorporated in recommendations for fostering productive language skills among CWS. The need for additional research on language in early stuttering and recovery is suggested.

Communication attitudes in children who stutter: A meta-analytic review

“…The factors associated with recovery include language skills: stronger language skills in girls at age 2 predicted recovery by age 7 (Kefalianos et al, 2017); steeper growth in syntactic production (mean age at assessment 57, 71, 83 months; Leech, Ratner, Brown, & Weber, 2017). However, Spencer and Weber-Fox (2014) reported no association with receptive or expressive language skills.…”

The Potential Usage of Language Skills for Predicting Recovery from Persistent Group in Korean Speaking Children Who Stutter

“…However, after 18 months both groups showed no difference in these measures, which means that both groups performed well. These results suggest that language skills during the initial visit can disentangle the recovered group from the persistent group (Leech et al, 2017). As found in Leech et al (2017), it was connective endings which predicted who will be in the recovery group.…”

“…These results suggest that language skills during the initial visit can disentangle the recovered group from the persistent group (Leech et al, 2017). As found in Leech et al (2017), it was connective endings which predicted who will be in the recovery group. However, in the aforementioned study, lexical diversity was not found as a significant indicator as was the case in our study.…”

“…Many studies (Ambrose et al, 2015;Bajaj, 2007;Guitar, 2006;Miles & Bernstein-Ratner, 2001;Muma, 1971;Wall, 1980;Watkins & Yairi, 1997;Watkins et al, 1999) showed results for children who stutter to have lower language skills than typically developing children, and very few studies have found a positive relation between language skills and recovery state from stuttering (Leech et al, 2017;Ntourou, Conture, & Lipsey, 2011). However, we still need to further investigate what would be the predicting factor for the stutter recovery process of a late diagnosed child as opposed to a child who receives a diagnosis during their first clinical visit.…”

“…A narrative scoring scheme in stuttering children was significantly lower than that of typically developing children, and the conversation of stuttering children was concluded to fall behind compared to typically developing children. Leech, Bernstein-Ratner, Brown, & Weber (2017) conducted the 말더듬 회복 여부에 따른 초기 말더듬아동의 언어능력 • 이수복 외 most up-to-date research examining language skills as a key factor in predicting recovery outcomes of children who stutter. The unique feature of this study was that they investigated the growth in the productive language performance to disentangle the groups into children who recover and children who persist in stuttering.…”