This paper examines the speech disorder of stuttering, defining the disorder and outlining some of the theories as to what causes it. After summarizing a number of the therapies that have met with success in treating stuttering, the author examines how this particular and complex disorder can affect a childÆs oral reading skills
Stuttering is a speech disorder with which most people are relatively familiar as it is not uncommon in both children and adults. Stuttering is a type of disfluency, a speech disorder characterized by repetitions of sounds, syllables or even entire words and phrases, by blocking of (usually initial) sounds or syllables, by prolongation of sounds or by fragmentation of phrases (Eisenson, 1986, p. 63).
Diagnosis of stuttering in young children can be problematic because children in the process of acquiring language are likely to produce some of the same symptoms of this speech disorder as a natural part of the language acquisition process. To put it another way: It can be difficult to distinguish the mistakes made by all beginning speakers from the mistakes made by those children with a chronic speech disorder. This is especially true with a disorder like stuttering because it does not occur all the time. Finally, making a diagnosis of stuttering is even more complicated because all speakers û even adults speaking their native language û have some naturally occurring disfluencies.
While trying to distinguish between ordinary mistakes and hesitations in language acquisition and use and true stuttering is difficult, certain guidelines do exist to help parents, teachers and health-care providers determine whether a child is stuttering. A child who demonstrates abrupt hesitations in speech or frequent repetitions of a single word, syllable or sound or who is compressing the tongue, lips or palate (Eisenson, 1986, p. 67) may be truly stuttering rather than simply demonstrating the ônormalö mistakes of a ...