Stuttering

Stuttering affects the fluency or natural flow of speech. Disruptions in one’s fluency, also called “disfluencies”, are a natural part of speech. A child may experience normal childhood disfluencies between the ages of 2 ½ and 5 years old. However, too many disfluencies can compromise overall speech intelligibility.

Common characteristics of Stuttering:

• Repetitions: These can be part-word (i.e. “w-w-w-where is it?”), word (i.e. “where, where, where is it?”) or phrase (i.e. “where is, where is, where is it?”) repetitions.
• Prolongations: This is when a person holds onto a sound longer than needed (i.e. “ssssssing a song”).
• Interjections: Common interjections are “um”, “like” and “ok.” A person may use these in anticipation of a word they know they get stuck on. (i.e. “I need to um, um, like, go to the store”).
• Blocks: This is when a person has positioned their mouth to say a sound but they are unable to vocalize a sound. It may take them some time to produce a sound or word.
• Secondary Behaviors: These are physical behaviors demonstrated by a person who stutters in order to prevent or break out of disfluencies. They may exhibit the following behaviors: eye blinks, tremors of the lips/tongue or face, jerking of the head or fist clenching. In addition, avoidance behaviors may ensue such as talking around a word, using a different word for intended word, avoiding eye contact or using a different voice or accent. Stress, fatigue and excitement can exacerbate these behaviors and the disfluencies.