• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.185-195
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• 2006

This study aims to clarify disfluency loci in a neurogenic stuttering group and to examine how the characteristics are different from a developmental stuttering group. For the study, spoken language samples were collected from 11 adults with developmental stuttering and 11 adults with neurogenic stuttering in the course of speaking tasks including reading, monologue and conversation. Using the collected samples, disfluency characteristics of the two groups were to be investigated by analyzing adaptation effect, consistency effect and frequency of disfluency occurrence according to word position, which are related to the occurrence loci of disfluency. Results of this study were as follows: First, while the neurogenic stuttering group did not show any adaptation effect, the developmental stuttering group showed the adaptation effect that the percent of disfluency word reducing as they read the same materials repeatedly. Second, there was no meaningful difference of consistency effect between the two stuttering groups. Third, the neurogenic stuttering group showed more disfluency frequency in final sounds among the word position compared to the developmental stuttering group.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.227-236
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• 2005

For the exact assessment and diagnosis of stuttering, not only speech disfluency but also the attitude of stuttering has to be considered. However, clinical researches and studies about stuttering have tend to center around disfluency. Relatively little attention was paid to the communication attitude of stuttering. In this paper, we will attempt to investigate that the Modified Erickson Scale of Communication Attitudes(S-24) is available in Korean stutterer. The S-24 was administrated to 27 adults with stuttering and 27 normal adults. Based on the item analysis of S-24, 4 items which have the low item discrimination coefficient and are little difference between stutterer group and normal group were excepted from the scale. To test validity of the reconstructed communication attitude scale, we estimated a internal consistency and carried out correlation analyses and discrimination analyses. We found that the reconstructed scale had a high internal consistency(a = .8701), was consisted six components(explanatory power = 66.59% of total variation), correlated with the PSI at .439 and with the SESAS at -.527, and correctly classified between stutterers and normal adults at 92.6%. Consequently, the reconstructed communication attitude scale is a useful scale to assess stutterer's communication attitude in Korea.

• MALSORI
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• no.67
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• pp.61-77
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to blow the characteristics of disfluency in childhood. The subjects were 144 normal children at the age of between 3 to 8 years who lived in Seoul. All the subjects provided spontaneous conversational speech samples during free-play interactions with their friends. We investigated the patterns and the frequency of disfluency and its relevance with subject's age, speaking rate and MLU(mean length of utterance). The results of this study can be summarized as follows. (1) There was no difference in the frequency of disfluency with the speaker's age or speaking rate. (2) Interjection was the most frequently occurring pattern of disfluency. (3) Prolongation, revision, interjection increased with age while part-word repetition, single-syllable word repetition, multi-syllable word repetition decreased gradually. (4) A significant effect of MLU on the frequency of disfluencies were demonstrated. The regression analysis has shown that more disfluencies occurred in utterances of children whose MLU is longer.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2007

Unlike other common forms of speech disorder, such as phonological disorder or dysphonia, stuttering has not been studied within the context of music therapy. Most cases of stuttering display no difficulty in singing, and fluency within the musical structure does not translate to fluency in speech. Hence, musical approach has been generally considered to be ineffective to the treatment of stuttering. However, the fundamentals of music therapy assume its extensive application in treating variety of speech disorders, including the case of stuttering. Presented in this paper are the case studies designed to validate the efficacy of music therapy as a remedy for stuttering. This study enrolled 6 children with stuttering and conducted 20 individual sessions over a period of 10 weeks. The sessions focused on the Melodic Intonation Therapy, Reinforcement of speech rhythm, song writing and singing. Musical elements were structured to enhance the verbal expression and rhythmic senses, as well as to facilitate the initiation of verbal communication. The result is as follows. First, it was noticed that the disfluency had been decreased in before and after of the music therapy in every child although the result was somewhat different depending the child. The overall result of the investigation shows the significant difference statistically. And categorically speaking, the significant difference was checked in the frequency of the stuttering. In the steps of the session, the increase and decrease was happened repeatedly, and then after it was decreased little by little. Secondly, the Communication Attitude was decreased in before and after of the music therapy, and also there was significant difference statistically. although the avoidance behavior was decreased in before and after of the music therapy, the increase and the decrease was repeated irregularly in the steps of session. All the results described above shows that music therapy gives positive effect to decrease in disfluency of stuttering child and also to develop the Communication Attitude. And new possibility and effectiveness can be proposed in the musical approach to the stuttering.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.159-173
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to use fiber-optic nasolaryngoscope to find out differences in laryngeal behavior between persons who stutter(PS) and those who do not stutter(NS) upon their utterance. To meet the goal above, this study took 5 NS and 5 PS respectively as a part of sampling, so that they were all asked to join an experiment hereof. As a result, this study came to the following findings: First, there was not any significant difference in laryngeal behavior of uttering spoken languages between stuttering group and control. Second, there were some differences in laryngeal behavior of repetition and prolongation, which were a sort of disfluency revealed in the utterance of nonfluent spoken languages between stuttering group and control. Third, as reported by prior studies, it was found that there were differences in laryngeal abehavior of stutterer group's nonfluent spoken languages depending upon stuttering types. In this study, a variety of laryngeal behavior unreported in prior studies could be found. In addition, it was notable that stutterers showed different laryngeal behavior depending on their personal stuttering types. On block condition, Subject 1 showed laryngeal behavior of fAB, INT and fAD; Subject 2 showed laryngeal behavior of fAB, fAD and rAD; Subject 3 showed laryngeal behavior of fAD and rAD; Subject 4 showed only laryngeal behavior of fAD; and Subejct 5 showed laryngeal behavior of fAB, fAD and rAD. Summing up, these findings imply that when stutterers utter nonfluent words, they may reveal a variety of laryngeal behavior depending on their personal stuttering types. Moreover, it is found that there are more or less differences in the utterance of nonfluent spoken languages between NS and stuttering ones. In particular, it is interesting that one common trait of nonfluent spoken languages uttered by PS is evidently excessive laryngeal stress, no matter which type of stuttering they reveal.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.59-77
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• 2005

The aim of the present study is to investigate how the phonemic characteristics influence on the disfluencies of children and adults who stutter. The participants were 10 children(9 boys and 1 girl) and 10 male adults. After having the participants to read out the Paradise-Fluency Assessment(Sim, Shin & Lee, 2004) passages, each of the productions were divided into syllables and words, and then the frequencies and the ratios of their disfluenceis were analyzed according to the specified phonemic features. In terms of the frequency of the disfluency, the participants stuttered more in the words which start with consonant than vowel. But they showed more disfluencies in the words initiated with vowel than consonant when the ratio of each phoneme's presences were considered. There found different tendencies among the phonemic features related with their disfluencies occuring with ralatively high frequency or ratio. It was difficult to find out the exact relationships among the order of the sound acquisition, phonemic complexity, and the disfluencies. To study the exact influence of the phonemic features upon the disfluencies, it comes important to consider the frequency of the stuttering itself together with the ratio of the disfluencies in which the opportunity of the specific sound's presence was considered. To compare the results of the different studies which has similar purposes, it seems important to consider the tasks and the methodologies in depth.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.53-64
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• 2021

According to Demand and Capacity Model (DCM), external and internal environments influence the disfluency of children who stutter (CWS). This study investigated the effects of simultaneous changes in motoric and linguistic demands on CWS and children who do not stutter (CWNS). Participants were 4-6 years old CWS and CWNS. A sentence imitation task with changes in speech rate, utterance length, and sentence complexity was used to examine their effects on children's disfluency. When the utterance length changed, CWS showed more disfluency regardless of utterance length and as the speech rate changed, CWS showed more disfluency at fast speech rate than CWNS. When the utterance length and speech rate changed, at fast speech rate, CWS showed more disfluency in both utterances than CWNS. When sentence complexity changed, CWS showed more disfluency than CWNS in complex sentences. Changes in linguistic elements such as speech rate, utterance length, and sentence complexity affect disfluency in CWS, especially when they were exposed to faster, longer, and more complex sentences. This indicates that CWS are vulnerable to fast and complex speech motor control and language processing ability than CWNS. Thus, this study suggests that parents and therapists consider both the speech rate and the utterance length when talking with CWS.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.318-326
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• 2011

With the increase of senior population, adults in their manhood and senescence with neurogenic defects also increase as well; thus, it is necessary to conduct foundational research on speech fluency to rehabilitate adults with neurogenic language disorders. Thereupon, this study analyzes the characteristics of speech fluency comparatively by age and sex with the subjects of normal adults in their 50's to 70's. According to the result of collecting language samples from total 90 adults, 30 (15 males, 15 females) in each age group of the 50's, 60's, and 70's and comparing the speech rate and disfluency frequency, first, adults in their 70's showed slower speech rate than those in their 50's or 60's. And those in their 50's, 60's, and 70's indicated no difference in their speech rate by sex. Second, there was no difference in normal disfluency and total disfluency among the adults in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Also, there was no difference among the age groups by sex, either. Third, there was no correlation between speech rate of all the age groups and disfluency frequency.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.75-87
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate, longitudinally, interruption behavior which children who do stutter (CWS), children who do not stutter (CWNS) and their mothers and relationship with disfluency of children showed during interactions with their mothers. Subjects for this study consisted of 2-5 year old CWS (male 2 and female 4), an age-matched group of CWNS (male 3 and female 3), and their mothers. Frequencies of normal disfluency (ND) and abnormal disfluency (AD) in children group and frequency of interruption and simultalk duration in children and mothers group were measured two times (initial visit and 12 months later) over the course of one year. As a result, no significant difference was observed in frequency of interruption and simultalk duration both between two mother groups and between two child groups at initial visit and 12 months later. However, frequency of interruption increased significantly over the course of one year in CWS group. A significant group difference was found in frequency of interruption of mothers but, no significant difference was observed in simultalk duration of mothers at initial visit. In the CWS·mothers group, no factors were related with disfluency of children at initial visit and 12 months later. These findings suggest that interruption is not just negative behavior, and that reducing interruption should be considered in child·parent interaction therapy for CWS.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.71-80
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• 2023

This study primarily aimed to develop an automated stuttering identification and classification method using artificial intelligence technology. In particular, this study aimed to develop a deep learning-based identification model utilizing the convolutional neural networks (CNNs) algorithm for Korean speakers who stutter. To this aim, speech data were collected from 9 adults who stutter and 9 normally-fluent speakers. The data were automatically segmented at the phrasal level using Google Cloud speech-to-text (STT), and labels such as 'fluent', 'blockage', prolongation', and 'repetition' were assigned to them. Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) and the CNN-based classifier were also used for detecting and classifying each type of the stuttered disfluency. However, in the case of prolongation, five results were found and, therefore, excluded from the classifier model. Results showed that the accuracy of the CNN classifier was 0.96, and the F1-score for classification performance was as follows: 'fluent' 1.00, 'blockage' 0.67, and 'repetition' 0.74. Although the effectiveness of the automatic classification identifier was validated using CNNs to detect the stuttered disfluencies, the performance was found to be inadequate especially for the blockage and prolongation types. Consequently, the establishment of a big speech database for collecting data based on the types of stuttered disfluencies was identified as a necessary foundation for improving classification performance.