Disfluencies in normal four-year-old Alaska Native and Caucasian children

• Main Author: O'Connell, Annette Cameron
• Format: Others
• Published: PDXScholar 1989
• Subjects: Speech disorders in children; Children > Language; Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3901; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4910&context=open_access_etds

The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of occurrence of specific speech disfluencies in 4-year-old Alaska Native children to those of 4-year-old Caucasian children. Specifically, eight disfluency types were investigated: part-word repetition, word repetition, phrase repetition, interjection, revision-incomplete phrase, disrhythmic phonation, tense pause, and intrusive schwa. The questions addressed in the study were: 1. Do 4-year-old Alaska Native children exhibit a higher frequency of disfluencies than 4-year-old Caucasian children? 2. Do 4-year-old Alaska Native children exhibit a greater frequency of specific disfluencies, in terms of part-word repetition, word repetition, phrase repetition, interjection, revision-incomplete phrase, disrhythmic phonation, tense pause, or intrusive schwa than 4-year-old Caucasian children? 3. Do 4-year-old Alaska Native and Caucasian children exhibit a higher frequency of low risk disfluency types (word repetition, phrase repetition, interjection, and revision-incomplete phrase) when compared to high risk disfluency types (part-word repetition, disrhythmic phonation, tense pause, and intrusive schwa)?