www.e-gagueira.com.br - Abstracts 2013 agosto a dezembro

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A comparative study on diadochokinetic skill of dyslexic, stuttering, and normal children. - MOTOR
ISRN Pediatr. 2013 Aug 6;2013:165193. doi: 10.1155/2013/165193.
Free full text:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3748780/pdf/ISRN.PEDIATRICS2013-165193.pdf

Malek A, Amiri S, Hekmati I, Pirzadeh J, Gholizadeh H.Source
Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Clinical Psychiatry Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

Objective. Previous studies have shown some motor deficits among stuttering and dyslexic children. While motor deficits in speech articulation of the stuttering children are among the controversial topics, no study on motor deficits of dyslexic children has been documented to date. Methods. 120 children (40 stuttering, 40 dyslexia, and 40 normal) 6-11 years old were matched and compared in terms of diadochokinetic skill. Dyslexia symptoms checklist, reading test, and diadochokinetic task were used as measurement instruments. Results. The data analysis showed that there are significant differences (P < 0.001) in reaction time and the number of syllables in accomplishing diadochokinetic tasks among stuttering children, dyslexics, and the control group. This indicates that stuttering children and dyslexics have poor performance in reaction time and in the number of monosyllable articulation and long syllable articulation. Furthermore, there are significant differences (P < 0.001) in these indices between stuttering children and dyslexics, so that the latter group have better performance than the former one. Conclusion. The findings indicate that stuttering children and dyslexics have deficits in diadochokinetic skill which suggests their low performance in the motor control of speech production and articulation. Such deficits might be due to the role of the tongue in the development of stuttering and dyslexia.
PMID: 23986872 [PubMed] PMCIDPMC3748780

Acquired stuttering due to recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma. - GAGUEIRA ADQUIRIDA
BMJ Case Rep. 2013 Nov 19;2013. pii: bcr2013009562. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2013-009562.

Peters KB, Turner S.
Departments of Neurology and Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.

Acquired (neurogenic) stuttering is a rare phenomenon seen after cerebral infarction or brain injury. Aetiology of this symptom is unclear, but recent evidence supports that it is a disturbance in the left hemispheric neural network involving the interplay between the cortex and basal ganglia. We present the case of a patient who develops acquired stuttering after a recurrence of a right temporoparietal anaplastic astrocytoma (WHO grade III). We also review other cases of acquired stuttering and known anatomical correlates.
PMID: 24252834 [PubMed - in process]PMID: 23986872 [PubMed] PMCIDPMC3748780

An Informatics Approach to Integrating Genetic and Neurological Data in Speech and Language Neuroscience - NEUROCIÊNCIAS
Neuroinformatics. 2013 Aug 15. [Epub ahead of print]

Bohland JW, Myers EM, Kim E.
Departments of Health Sciences and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, MA, USA

A number of heritable disorders impair the normal development of speech and language processes and occur in large numbers within the general population. While candidate genes and loci have been identified, the gap between genotype and phenotype is vast, limiting current understanding of the biology of normal and disordered processes. This gap exists not only in our scientific knowledge, but also in our research communities, where genetics researchers and speech, language, and cognitive scientists tend to operate independently. Here we describe a web-based, domain-specific, curated database that represents information about genotype-phenotype relations specific to speech and language disorders, as well as neuroimaging results demonstrating focal brain differences in relevant patients versus controls. Bringing these two distinct data types into a common database ( http://neurospeech.org/sldb ) is a first step toward bringing molecular level information into cognitive and computational theories of speech and language function. One bridge between these data types is provided by densely sampled profiles of gene expression in the brain, such as those provided by the Allen Brain Atlases. Here we present results from exploratory analyses of human brain gene expression profiles for genes implicated in speech and language disorders, which are annotated in our database. We then discuss how such datasets can be useful in the development of computational models that bridge levels of analysis, necessary to provide a mechanistic understanding of heritable language disorders. We further describe our general approach to information integration, discuss important caveats and considerations, and offer a specific but speculative example based on genes implicated in stuttering and basal ganglia function in speech motor control.
PMID: 23949335 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

[Cases of three patients undergoing chemotherapy for gastric cancer who developed Trousseau's syndrome]. - GAGUEIRA ADQUIRIDA
Gan To Kagaku Ryoho. 2013 Nov;40(12):2313-5.
[Article in Japanese]

Kawase T, Kimura Y, Kaido M, Kawabata R, Ninomiya H, Nakajima Y, Fukunaga M, Ohzato H.
Dept. of Surgery, Sakai City Hospital.

Trousseau's syndrome involves unexplained thrombotic events along with malignancy. We report the cases of 3 patients undergoing chemotherapy for gastric cancer in whom Trousseau's syndrome occurred. Case 1 involved a 43-year-old woman undergoing S-1/cisplatin( CDDP) combination therapy as first-line chemotherapy for type 4 remnant gastric cancer( cT4bN2M1P1/stage IV) who experienced left hemiplegia. Cerebral hemorrhage of the right parietal lobe was diagnosed by computed tomography( CT), and thrombosis from the upper sagittal sinus to the right sinus sigmoideus was diagnosed by magnetic resonance venography( MRV). Case 2 involved a 59-year-old man undergoing S-1/irinotecan (CPT-11) combination therapy as second-line chemotherapy for type 3 gastric cancer( cT3N1M0H1/stage IV) who experienced ataxic, stuttering, and left membrum inferius paralysis. Multiple cerebral infarction of the right parietal lobe was diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Case 3 involved a 67-year-old woman undergoing S-1/CDDP combination therapy as preoperative chemotherapy for type 3 gastric cancer( cT4aN1M0/stage IIIA) who experienced right cerebellum incontinentia, nystagmus, and right facioplegia. Multiple cerebral infarction of the right cerebellum and pedunculus cerebellaris medius was diagnosed by MRI. An anticoagulant was administered orally for stroke, and chemotherapy for gastric cancer was resumed after activities of daily living( ADL) improved in all 3 patients. Recurrent stroke was not diagnosed in any of the 3 patients. Patients with malignancy often exhibit hypercoagulability associated with cancer. Accordingly, periodic blood tests for coagulation should be performed and dehydration should be prevented to prevent strokes in cancer patients.
PMID: 24394096 [PubMed - in process]

Clinician percent syllables stuttered, clinician severity ratings and speaker severity ratings: are they interchangeable? - AVALIAÇÃO
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2013 Dec 4. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12069. [Epub ahead of print]

Karimi H, Jones M, O'Brian S, Onslow M.
Australian Stuttering Research Centre, University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW, Australia; Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

BACKGROUND: At present, percent syllables stuttered (%SS) is the gold standard outcome measure for behavioural stuttering treatment research. However, ordinal severity rating (SR) procedures have some inherent advantages over that method.
AIMS: To establish the relationship between Clinician %SS, Clinician SR and self-reported Speaker SR. To investigate whether Clinician SRs and Speaker SRs can be used interchangeably.
METHOD & PROCEDURES: Participants were three experienced speech-language pathologist (SLP) judges and 87 adults who stuttered. Adults who stuttered received a 10-min unscheduled telephone call at the conclusion of which they self-reported a SR using a nine-point scale. The SLPs measured the stuttering for these conversations with %SS and also with the SR scale. The mean scores for Clinician %SS and Clinician SR were compared with Speaker SR using appropriate indices of relative and absolute reliability. Relative reliability indices deal with the rank order of participants in a sample and whether they can be distinguished from each other. However, absolute reliability indices are related to the closeness of the measurement scores to each other and to a hypothetical true score.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Strong correlations were found between Clinician %SS and Clinician SR, and also between Clinician %SS and Speaker SR, although with higher values in the former case. Additionally, very high correlations showed acceptable relative reliability between Clinician SR and Speaker SR. However, absolute reliability in terms of standard error of measurement and limits of agreement was poor for Clinician SR and Speaker SR.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The results suggest that Clinician SR and Speaker SR cannot be used interchangeably to measure temporal stuttering severity changes for an individual client. However, researchers might use these two measures interchangeably in research contexts, such as clinical trials, where changes of the entire group are of interest to determine and compare treatment effect size across trials.
PMID: 24304909 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

[Current topics and future prospect for pediatric speech disorder-school children with stuttering].
Nihon Jibiinkoka Gakkai Kaiho. 2013 Aug;116(8):992-4.
[Article in Japanese]

Mori K.

No abstract available.
PMID: 24396925 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] MID: 24304909 [PubMed - as supplied by Publisher]

Defining stuttering for research purposes.
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Sep;38(3):294-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.05.001. Epub 2013 Jun 6.

Yairi E.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States; Tel Aviv University, Israel.

This is a response to a Letter to the Editor entitled "Stuttering prevalence, incidence and recovery rates depend on how we define it: Comment on Yairi & Ambrose' article Epidemiology of Stuttering: 21st Century advances" by Paul Brocklehurst (2013). The criticism was directed specifically toward Yairi and Ambrose' conclusions, based on review of recent studies, regarding the incidence and prevalence of stuttering. In this response, Brocklehurst's arguments and suggestions of criteria for incidence research are discussed and negated.
Comment on
Epidemiology of stuttering: 21st century advances. [J Fluency Disord. 2013]
Stuttering prevalence, incidence and recovery rates depend on how we define it: comment on Yairi & Ambrose' article Epidemiology of stuttering: 21st century advances. [J Fluency Disord. 2013]
PMID: 24238391 [PubMed - in process]

Dysfluencies in the speech of adults with intellectual disabilities and reported speech difficulties. - OUTRAS ÁREAS
J Commun Disord. 2013 Aug 25. pii: S0021-9924(13)00038-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2013.08.001. [Epub ahead of print]

Coppens-Hofman MC, Terband HR, Maassen BA, van Schrojenstein Lantman-De Valk HM, van Zaalen-Op't Hof Y, Snik AF.
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Department of Medical Psychology and NCEBP, The Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: In individuals with an intellectual disability, speech dysfluencies are more common than in the general population. In clinical practice, these fluency disorders are generally diagnosed and treated as stuttering rather than cluttering.
PURPOSE: To characterise the type of dysfluencies in adults with intellectual disabilities and reported speech difficulties with an emphasis on manifestations of stuttering and cluttering, which distinction is to help optimise treatment aimed at improving fluency and intelligibility.
METHOD: The dysfluencies in the spontaneous speech of 28 adults (18-40 years; 16 men) with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities (IQs 40-70), who were characterised as poorly intelligible by their caregivers, were analysed using the speech norms for typically developing adults and children. The speakers were subsequently assigned to different diagnostic categories by relating their resulting dysfluency profiles to mean articulatory rate and articulatory rate variability.
RESULTS: Twenty-two (75%) of the participants showed clinically significant dysfluencies, of which 21% were classified as cluttering, 29% as cluttering-stuttering and 25% as clear cluttering at normal articulatory rate. The characteristic pattern of stuttering did not occur.
CONCLUSION: The dysfluencies in the speech of adults with intellectual disabilities and poor intelligibility show patterns that are specific for this population. Together, the results suggest that in this specific group of dysfluent speakers interventions should be aimed at cluttering rather than stuttering. Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to (1) describe patterns of dysfluencies in the speech of adults with intellectual disabilities that are specific for this group of people, (2) explain that a high rate of dysfluencies in speech is potentially a major determiner of poor intelligibility in adults with ID and (3) describe suggestions for intervention focusing on cluttering rather than stuttering in dysfluent speakers with ID.
PMID: 24011852 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Effect of word accent on the difficulty of transition from core vowels in first syllables to the following segments in Japanese children who stutter. - FALA
Clin Linguist Phon. 2013 Sep;27(9):694-704. doi: 10.3109/02699206.2013.796404. Epub 2013 Jul 2.

Matsumoto-Shimamori S, Ito T.
Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists , Tokyo , Japan

Matsumoto-Shimamori, Ito, Fukuda, and Fukuda (2011) proposed the hypothesis that the transition from the core vowel (i.e. syllable nucleus) in the first syllable of a word to the following segment significantly affects the occurrence of stuttering in Japanese. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether word accent (i.e. an abrupt pitch fall in Japanese) affects the production difficulty of the transition from the core vowel in the first syllable of a word to the following segment in Japanese. The participants were 25 Japanese children who stuttered, ranging in age from 6;4 to 12;5. A two- and three-syllable word naming task was used. The frequency of stuttering was not significantly different between the words with and without an abrupt pitch fall, and among those whose positions of an abrupt pitch fall were different. These results suggest that word accent does not have a significant effect on the difficulty of the transition from the core vowel in the first syllable of a word in Japanese.
PMID: 23819676 [PubMed - in process]

Effectiveness of intensive, group therapy for teenagers who stutter. - TERAPIA EM GRUPO
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2013 Sep 17. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12051. [Epub ahead of print]

Fry J, Millard S, Botterill W.
The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering, London, UK.

BACKGROUND: Treatment of adolescents who stutter is an under-researched area that would benefit from greater attention.
AIMS: To investigate whether an intensive treatment programme for older teenagers who stutter, aged over 16 years of age, is effective in reducing overt and covert aspects of stuttering.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: A repeated-measures, single-subject experimental design was replicated across participants. The study consisted of a 5-week baseline phase, 2-week intensive treatment phase, 5-week consolidation phase and 10-month follow-up phase. Participants were asked to make ten video recordings at home during each phase, while completing a reading and a conversation task. Recordings were analysed in terms of the percentage of stuttered syllables using a simplified time-series analysis. Participants completed self-report questionnaires at predetermined times throughout the study. Data are presented for three males aged 17;7, 17;11 and 18;10.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: One participant completed all required recordings. Difficulties were encountered collecting follow-up data with the other two participants and data are available up to 5 months after the intensive therapy phase. A significant trend of reduced frequency of stuttering was found for all three participants during the intensive therapy phase. This trend continued throughout the consolidation phase and remained significant when available longer-term data were included in the analysis. Participants also reported increased self-efficacy about speaking and reduced overt and covert aspects of stammering.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Findings show that this therapy programme for teenagers had a significant treatment effect for the participants studied in the short- and medium-term, however longer-term data were not available for all participants. Issues in conducting research with this client group are discussed.
PMID: 24102885 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]PMID: 23819676 [PubMed - in process]

Emotional reactivity and regulation in preschool-age children who stutter. - EMOCIONAL
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Sep;38(3):260-74. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.06.002. Epub 2013 Jun 28.

Ntourou K, Conture EG, Walden TA.
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Vanderbilt University, 1215 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN, USA.

PURPOSE: This study experimentally investigated behavioral correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation and their relation to speech (dis)fluency in preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not (CWNS) stutter during emotion-eliciting conditions.
METHOD: Participants (18 CWS, 14 boys; 18 CWNS, 14 boys) completed two experimental tasks (1) a neutral ("apples and leaves in a transparent box," ALTB) and (2) a frustrating ("attractive toy in a transparent box," ATTB) task, both of which were followed by a narrative task. Dependent measures were emotional reactivity (positive affect, negative affect), emotion regulation (self-speech, distraction) exhibited during the ALTB and the ATTB tasks, percentage of stuttered disfluencies (SDs) and percentage of non-stuttered disfluencies (NSDs) produced during the narratives.
RESULTS: Results indicated that preschool-age CWS exhibited significantly more negative emotion and more self-speech than preschool-age CWNS. For CWS only, emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, self-speech) during the experimental tasks were predictive of stuttered disfluencies during the subsequent narrative tasks. Furthermore, for CWS there was no relation between emotional processes and non-stuttered disfluencies, but CWNS's negative affect was significantly related to nonstuttered disfluencies.
CONCLUSIONS: In general, present findings support the notion that emotional processes are associated with childhood stuttering. Specifically, findings are consistent with the notion that preschool-age CWS are more emotionally reactive than CWNS and that their self-speech regulatory attempts may be less than effective in modulating their emotions.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (a) communicate the relevance of studying the role of emotion in developmental stuttering close to the onset of stuttering and (b) describe the main findings of the present study in relation to previous studies that have used different methodologies to investigate the role of emotion in developmental stuttering of young children who stutter.
PMID: 24238388 [PubMed - in process] PMCID: PMC3834351 [Available on 2014/9/1]

Hemispheric lateralization of motor thresholds in relation to stuttering. - MOTOR
PLoS One. 2013 Oct 11;8(10):e76824. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076824.
Free full text: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3795648/pdf/pone.0076824.pdf

Alm PA, Karlsson R, Sundberg M, Axelson HW.
Department of Neuroscience, Speech and Language Pathology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

Stuttering is a complex speech disorder. Previous studies indicate a tendency towards elevated motor threshold for the left hemisphere, as measured using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This may reflect a monohemispheric motor system impairment. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relative side-to-side difference (asymmetry) and the absolute levels of motor threshold for the hand area, using TMS in adults who stutter (n=15) and in controls (n=15). In accordance with the hypothesis, the groups differed significantly regarding the relative side-to-side difference of finger motor threshold (p=0.0026), with the stuttering group showing higher motor threshold of the left hemisphere in relation to the right. Also the absolute level of the finger motor threshold for the left hemisphere differed between the groups (p=0.049). The obtained results, together with previous investigations, provide support for the hypothesis that stuttering tends to be related to left hemisphere motor impairment, and possibly to a dysfunctional state of bilateral speech motor control.
PMID: 24146930 [PubMed - in process] PMCID: PMC3795648

Lexical category influences in Persian children who stutter. - LINGUAGEM
Clin Linguist Phon. 2013 Aug 13. [Epub ahead of print]

Vahab M, Zandiyan A, Falahi MH, Howell P.
Department of Speech Therapy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences , Shiraz , Iran

This article explores the effect that words from different lexical categories have on disfluency in 12 Persian children, ten boys and two girls, who stutter. They were aged 7 years 5 months to 10 years 6 months. Words from the participants' narrative and reading samples (sub-tests of the Reading and Dyslexia Test validated for Persian school-aged children) were categorized as content, function, or content-function, and stuttering-like disfluencies were coded in each speech sample. Content and content-function words were significantly more likely to show stuttering-like disfluencies than function words. The distribution of symptom types over content and content-function words was similar, and differed from the distribution seen in function words. The symptom type analysis also supported the view that whole-word repetitions should not be grouped with other stuttering-like disfluencies.
PMID: 23941107 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Lexical priming in fluent and with developmental stuttering children. - FALA
Codas. 2013;25(2):95-101. [Article in English, Portuguese]
Free full text:http://www.scielo.br/pdf/codas/v25n2/en_a02v25n2.pdf
Free full text em português: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/codas/v25n2/a02v25n2.pdf

Andrade CR, Juste FS, Fortunato-Tavares TM.
Department of Physiotherapy, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology and Occupational Therapy,
School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo – USP – São Paulo (SP), Brazil.

PURPOSE: To examine the possible relationship between lexical variables (categorization and naming) and developmental stuttering.
METHODS: Thirty Brazilian Portuguese speaking children with ages ranging from 7 to 9 years and 11 months participated in the study. We applied a lexical priming paradigm to experimentally investigate whether children with developmental stuttering (Research Group) differed from their fluent peers (Control Group), with respect to reaction time in three conditions - control (without prime); semantically related prime, and semantically independent prime - of two experimental tasks: categorization and naming of the target stimulus.
RESULTS: No difference between groups was observed in reaction time on the categorization task. However, there was a condition effect showing that, for both groups, reaction time was shorter in the semantically related prime condition when compared to the no prime condition. In the naming task, a between-group difference was observed in reaction time, indicating a longer reaction time in the Research Group than the Control Group. There was no condition effect on naming, i.e. the Research Group showed slower reaction time regardless of prime type.
CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm the hypothesis that, in children with developmental stuttering, readiness in motor programming of speech is slowed when compared to fluent children. There is no difference between groups when the lexical function does not require speech readiness.
PMID: 24408236 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Motor learning cannot explain stuttering adaptation. - FALA
Percept Mot Skills. 2013 Aug;117(1):1235-42.

Venkatagiri HS, Nataraja NP, Deepthi M.
Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA and JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, India.

When persons who stutter (PWS) read a text repeatedly, there is a progressive reduction in stutter frequency over the course of three to five readings. Recently, this phenomenon has been attributed by some researchers to motor learning-the acquisition of relatively permanent motor skills that facilitate fluency through practice in producing words. The current study tested this explanation. 23 PWS read prose passages five times in succession. The number of 'new' and 'old' stutters during repeated readings (words stuttered in the current reading but spoken fluently in the previous reading and words stuttered also in the previous reading) were analyzed. If motor learning facilitated fluency during repeated readings in PWS, words read fluently in a reading should not be stuttered in a later reading in significant numbers. Contrary to this prediction, there was no statistical difference in the number of new words stuttered across five readings. A plausible alternative explanation, which requires further study to verify, is offered.
PMID: 24422348 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Natural history of stuttering to 4 years of age: a prospective community-based study. - INFANTIL
Pediatrics. 2013 Sep;132(3):460-7. doi: 10.1542/peds.2012-3067. Epub 2013 Aug 26.
Free full text:https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/132/3/460.full.pdf
Reilly S, Onslow M,Packman A,Cini E, Conway L, Ukoumunne OC,Bavin EL,Prior M,Eadie P, Block S, Wake M.
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Flemington Rd, Parkville, Australia.

OBJECTIVES: To document the natural history of stuttering by age 4 years, including (1) cumulative incidence of onset, (2) 12-month recovery status, (3) predictors of stuttering onset and recovery, and (4) potential comorbidities. The study cohort was a prospective community-ascertained cohort (the Early Language in Victoria Study) from Melbourne, Australia, of 4-year-old children (n = 1619; recruited at age 8 months) and their mothers.
METHODS: Outcome was stuttering onset by age 4 years and recovery within 12 months of onset, defined using concurrent monthly parent and speech pathologist ratings. Potential predictors: child gender, birth weight, birth order, prematurity, and twinning; maternal mental health and education; socioeconomic status; and family history of stuttering. Potential comorbidities: preonset and concurrent temperament, language, nonverbal cognition, and health-related quality of life.
RESULTS: By age 4 years, the cumulative incidence of stuttering onset was 11.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.7% to 12.8%). Higher maternal education (P = .004), male gender (P = .02), and twinning (P = .005) predicted stuttering onset. At outcome, stuttering children had stronger language (mean [SD]: 105.0 [13.0] vs 99.6 [14.6]; mean difference 5.5, 95% CI: 3.1 to 7.8; P < .001) and nonverbal cognition (mean [SD]: 106.5 [11.4] vs 103.9 [13.7], mean difference 2.6, 95% CI: 0.4 to 4.8; P = .02) and better health-related quality of life but were otherwise similar to their nonstuttering peers. Only 9 of 142 children (6.3%; 95% CI: 2.9% to 11.7%) recovered within 12 months of onset.
CONCLUSIONS: Although stuttering onset is common in preschoolers, adverse affects are not the norm in the first year after onset.
PMID: 23979093 [PubMed - in process]

Neural network connectivity differences in children who stutter. - NEUROCIÊNCIAS
Brain. 2013 Oct 16. [Epub ahead of print]

Chang SE, Zhu DC.
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.

Affecting 1% of the general population, stuttering impairs the normally effortless process of speech production, which requires precise coordination of sequential movement occurring among the articulatory, respiratory, and resonance systems, all within millisecond time scales. Those afflicted experience frequent disfluencies during ongoing speech, often leading to negative psychosocial consequences. The aetiology of stuttering remains unclear; compared to other neurodevelopmental disorders, few studies to date have examined the neural bases of childhood stuttering. Here we report, for the first time, results from functional (resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging) and structural connectivity analyses (probabilistic tractography) of multimodal neuroimaging data examining neural networks in children who stutter. We examined how synchronized brain activity occurring among brain areas associated with speech production, and white matter tracts that interconnect them, differ in young children who stutter (aged 3-9 years) compared with age-matched peers. Results showed that children who stutter have attenuated connectivity in neural networks that support timing of self-paced movement control. The results suggest that auditory-motor and basal ganglia-thalamocortical networks develop differently in stuttering children, which may in turn affect speech planning and execution processes needed to achieve fluent speech motor control. These results provide important initial evidence of neurological differences in the early phases of symptom onset in children who stutter.
PMID: 24131593 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Nonword repetition and nonword reading abilities in adults who do and do not stutter. - FALA
Fluency Disord. 2013 Sep;38(3):275-89. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.06.001. Epub 2013 Jun 29.

Sasisekaran J.
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, United States.

PURPOSE: In the present study a nonword repetition and a nonword reading task were used to investigate the behavioral (speech accuracy) and speech kinematic (movement variability measured as lip aperture variability index; speech duration) profiles of groups of young adults who do (AWS) and do not stutter (control).
METHOD: Participants were 9 AWS (8 males, Mean age=32.2, SD=14.7) and 9 age- and sex-matched control participants (Mean age=31.8, SD=14.6). For the nonword repetition task, participants were administered the Nonword Repetition Test (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998). For the reading task, participants were required to read out target nonwords varying in length (6 vs. 11 syllables). Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted to compare the groups in percent speech accuracy for both tasks; only for the nonword reading task, the groups were compared in movement variability and speech duration.
RESULTS: The groups were comparable in percent accuracy in nonword repetition. Findings from nonword reading revealed a trend for the AWS to show a lower percent of accurate productions compared to the control group. AWS also showed significantly higher movement variability and longer speech durations compared to the control group in nonword reading. Some preliminary evidence for group differences in practice effect (seen as differences between the early vs. later 5 trials) was evident in speech duration.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest differences between AWS and control groups in phonemic encoding and/or speech motor planning and production. Findings from nonword repetition vs. reading highlight the need for careful consideration of nonword properties.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (a) summarize the literature on nonword repetition skills in adults who stutter, (b) describe processes underlying nonword repetition and nonword reading, (c) summarize whether or not adults who stutter differ from those who do not in the behavioral and kinematic markers of nonword reading performance, (d) discuss future directions for research.
PMID: 24238389 [PubMed - in process] PMCID: PMC3834355 [Available on 2014/9/1]

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision skills in school-age children who do and do not stutter. - FALA
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2013 Nov;48(6):625-39. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12035. Epub 2013 Aug 7.

Sasisekaran J, Byrd C.
Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Nonword repetition and phoneme elision represent the combined influence of several speech and language processes. In the present study we investigated nonword repetition and phoneme elision performance in school-age children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CNS). Participants were 14 CWS (mean = 11.7 years, SD = 2.1 years) and age- and sex-matched CNS (mean = 11.8 years, SD = 2.0 years). Each talker group was further subdivided into two age groups: younger (N = 7; 8-11.5 years) and older (N = 7; 11.6-15 years). Repeated-measures analyses were conducted on the accuracy and response time (in seconds) data. In nonword repetition, the CWS showed a trend for lower per cent of correct phonemes at the two-syllable level compared with the CNS. In phoneme elision, the younger CWS showed a significantly lower accuracy rate than the older CWS at the two- and three-syllable nonword lengths, while similar differences were not evident between the younger versus older CNS at any of the nonword lengths. No accuracy difference in phoneme elision was noted between the two talker groups. Group differences in speech initiation times were also not evident in either of the tasks. Findings from nonword repetition offer tentative support for difficulties experienced by school-age CWS in phonemic encoding/working memory abilities. Findings from the phoneme elision task suggest a complex pattern of age-dependent performance by the CWS. Comparison of response accuracy and speech initiation times in both the tasks failed to show speed-accuracy trade-off strategies in either of the groups.
PMID: 24165360 [PubMed - in process]

Phenytoin-induced stuttering: an extremely rare association.
Pediatr Neurol. 2013 Aug;49(2):e5. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2013.03.011.

Ali Ekici M, Ekici A, Ozdemir O.
Department of Neurosurgery, Þevket Yýlmaz Training and Research Hospital, Bursa

No abstract available
PMID: 23859866 [PubMed - in process]

Phonetic complexity and stuttering in Arabic. - FALA
Clin Linguist Phon. 2013 Aug 14. [Epub ahead of print]

Al-Tamimi F, Khamaiseh Z, Howell P.
Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Qatar University , Doha , Qatar

The current study investigated whether phonetic complexity affected stuttering rate in Jordanian Arabic speakers. Speakers were assigned to three age groups (6-11, 12-17 and 18+ years). An Arabic index of phonetic complexity (AIPC) was developed. Each word was given a score based on the number of complex phonetic properties out of a total of nine that it contained in the AIPC. The results showed that stuttering on function words for Jordanian Arabic did not correlate significantly with the AIPC score for any age group. The AIPC scores of content and function-content words correlated positively with stuttering rate for the 6-11 age group alone with the function-content words affecting fluency more severely than did the content words. The AIPC scores of stuttered function, content and stuttered function-content words were higher than those of fluent words. The non-stuttered words had lower AIPC scores than the stuttered corresponding classes. This showed that the higher the AIPC score on stuttered words, the greater the chance for these word categories to be stuttered. The AIPC factors that most affected fluency in Jordanian Arabic were place of articulation, manner of articulation, word length, word shape and consonant length. We conclude that Arabic is similar to other languages with regard to the loci of stuttering, their phonetic complexity and AIPC factors affecting stuttering most. The correlation between phonetic complexity and the order of the AIPC factors are different between Arabic and other languages.
PMID: 23944195 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Psychological characteristics and perceptions of stuttering of adults who stutter with and without support group experience - EMOCIONAL
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Dec;38(4):368-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.09.001. Epub 2013 Oct 1

Boyle MP.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States.

PURPOSE: To compare adults who stutter with and without support group experience on measures of self-esteem, self-efficacy, life satisfaction, self-stigma, perceived stuttering severity, perceived origin and future course of stuttering, and importance of fluency.
METHOD: Participants were 279 adults who stutter recruited from the National Stuttering Association and Board Recognized Specialists in Fluency Disorders. Participants completed a Web-based survey comprised of various measures of well-being including the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, a measure of perceived stuttering severity, the Self-Stigma of Stuttering Scale, and other stuttering-related questions.
RESULTS: Participants with support group experience as a whole demonstrated lower internalized stigma, were more likely to believe that they would stutter for the rest of their lives, and less likely to perceive production of fluent speech as being highly or moderately important when talking to other people, compared to participants with no support group experience. Individuals who joined support groups to help others feel better about themselves reported higher self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction, and lower internalized stigma and perceived stuttering severity, compared to participants with no support group experience. Participants who stutter as an overall group demonstrated similar levels of self-esteem, higher self-efficacy, and lower life satisfaction compared to averages from normative data for adults who do not stutter.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the notion that self-help support groups limit internalization of negative attitudes about the self, and that focusing on helping others feel better in a support group context is linked to higher levels of psychological well-being. Educational objectives: At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (a) describe the potential psychological benefits of stuttering self-help support groups for people who stutter, (b) contrast between important aspects of well-being including self-esteem self-efficacy, and life satisfaction, (c) summarize differences in self-esteem, self-efficacy, life satisfaction, self-stigma, perceived stuttering severity, and perceptions of stuttering between adults who stutter with and without support group experience, (d) summarize differences in self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction between adults who stutter and normative data for adults who do not stutter.
PMID: 24331244 [PubMed - in process]

Public attitudes toward stuttering in Poland. - SOCIAL
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2013 Nov;48(6):703-14. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12041. Epub 2013 Aug 2.

Przepiorka AM, Blachnio A, St Louis KO, Wozniak T.Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.

BACKGROUND: People who stutter often experience negative judgments and reactions to their stuttering from the nonstuttering majority. Many are stigmatized because of their stuttering and threatened with social exclusion, placing them at risk for compromised quality of life.
AIMS: The purpose of this investigation was to measure public attitudes toward stuttering in Poland.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: A sample of 268 respondents (mean age = 29 years; range = 15-60 years) from numerous different geographic and urban-rural settings in Poland filled out a Polish translation of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S).
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Polish respondents displayed attitudes toward stuttering and people who stutter that were generally similar or "average" in comparison with other samples around the world from the POSHA-S database.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Although generally typical of other Western societies studied, attitudes of adolescents and adults from Poland were notably different in some ways, such as in the beliefs that emotional trauma or viruses and disease can cause stuttering as well as in the self reaction that they would feel uncomfortable speaking with a stuttering person. Overall, social exclusion and stigma are as likely among Poles who stutter as among most other populations studied.
PMID: 24165366 [PubMed - in process]

Quality of life of caregivers of children and adolescents with speech and language disorders. - SOCIAL
Codas. 2013;25(2):128-134. [Article in English, Portuguese]
Free full text:http://www.scielo.br/pdf/codas/v25n2/en_a07v25n2.pdf
Free full text em português:http://www.scielo.br/pdf/codas/v25n2/a07v25n2.pdf

Zerbeto AB, Chun RY.

PURPOSE: To investigate the quality of life of caregivers of children and adolescents presenting speech and language disorders from their own perspective.
METHODS: Two groups participated, adding up to 40 subjects. Group 1 was composed by 20 caregivers of 4 to 17 years-old children or adolescents with speech and language disorders, paired by age with the Control Group or 2 that included 20 caregivers of children or adolescents with no speech and language complaints. Data collection was done using: two open questions and the World Health Organization instrument, which was translated and adapted to Portuguese language - the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF). The results were submitted to statistical analysis and the open questions were qualitatively analyzed.
RESULTS: The language disorders distribution showed: stuttering (35%), non-neurological (35%), and neurological oral language disorders (30%). In the analysis of the WHOQOL-BREF scores, there were quality of life differences regarding the physical (1.1%), psychological (0.5%), and social relationships (1.8%) domains. Group 1 presented the most dissatisfying quality of life. Concerning the open questions, it presented good and reasonable characteristics and Group 2, good and very good. The clinical routine and children were mentioned as factors that hamper self-care in Group 1.
CONCLUSIONS: The lowest score of Group 1 in the WHOQOL-BREF was consistent with the open questions results, showing that aspects such as clinical attendance routine and comprehension difficulties influence caregivers' quality of life. The results corroborate that they should be assisted, since they are a group that deserves healthy actions directed to them.
PMID: 24408241 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Reading between the lines: a case series in primary reading epilepsy. - OUTRAS ÁREAS
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013 Nov;84(11):e2. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2013-306573.33.

Lonergan R, McCarthy A, Shamsu A, Byrne J, Merwick A, Reilly R, Lynch T, McGuigan C, Connolly S.
St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin; Mater Misericordiae Hospital; Trinity College Dublin Neural.

BACKGROUND: Primary reading epilepsy (PRE), a rare reflex epilepsy, is characterised by orofacial myoclonus and jaw protrusion, and is almost exclusively reading-induced. Seizures are typically terminated by reading cessation, but can secondarily generalise. Underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Unusual seizure phenotype and frequently normal inter-ictal EEG may lead to underdiagnosis and significant morbidity.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four patients presented to 3 neurology centres with orofacial myoclonus/chin twitching, jaw protrusion, sense of unease, stuttering and reduced reading fluency, with occasional generalised convulsions, whilst reading, especially aloud, and if tired. Symptoms occurred with different languages. Mean age of onset was 20 years. Examination was normal in all.
INVESTIGATIONS: Brain MRIs and routine interictal EEGs were normal. However, prolonged EEG, with specific tasks related to reading silently and aloud, and languages, elicited Spike Wave Events (SWE) associated with myoclonus and halting of speech, maximal over central regions. In a native English speaker, reading German, especially aloud, elicited SWE, associated with epigastric discomfort, unease and jaw myoclonus, captured on video. ERP and time-frequency analyses displayed temporal characteristics of word access, and increased gamma-band activity for varying reading materials and reading with humming. Primary reading epilepsy was diagnosed in each case, and anti-epileptic therapy commenced (lamotrigine, carbamazepine, valproate), with improved control.
DISCUSSION: Increased awareness of PRE, which detrimentally impacts on many aspects of patients' lives, may enhance detection. The complex tasks used to elicit characteristic epileptiform features may optimise the diagnostic yield of EEG. ERP analyses may offer insight into complex reading networks and validate cortical hyperexcitability hypotheses, and additional strategies examined, eg reading with humming, may play ancillary therapeutic roles.
PMID: 24109014 [PubMed - in process]

Recurrent involuntary imagery in people who stutter and people who do not stutter. - EMOCIONAL
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Sep;38(3):247-59. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.06.003. Epub 2013 Jul 8.

Tudor H, Davis S, Brewin CR, Howell P.
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.

OBJECTIVE: To compare intrusive memories in groups of people who do (PWS), and who do not (PWNS), stutter.
METHOD: Twenty-one participants who stuttered and 21 matched controls were given a semi-structured interview which explored imagery in speaking situations. The data were analyzed using a Content Analysis approach. Other outcome measures were the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, Symptom Scale: Self-Report Version.
RESULTS: Significantly more stuttering participants than control participants indicated both recurrent imagery and associated memories. Content Analysis revealed themes of disfluency, anxiety, negative social evaluation, self-focus and pressure to speak that were common to both groups' reports. Additional themes of helplessness, shame, sadness and frustration were found only in the images and memories of the stuttering group. No group differences were evident for the number of sensory modalities involved in images and memories, or for ratings of their vividness or strength of associated emotions, or on self-reports of depression, anxiety and trauma.
CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent imagery about events in childhood is a potent factor in the memories of PWS. It is worth modifying interventions that have been successfully applied for treating social anxiety for use with people who stutter.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: After reading this article, participants will be able to: (a) identify the role of intrusive memories in psychiatric disorders and stuttering; (b) investigate how DSM criteria can be employed with people who stutter; (c) employ anxiety instruments used for assessing psychiatric disorders for stuttering; (d) distinguish between the intrusive memories experienced by people who stutter, and people who do not stutter; (e) apply treatments for intrusive memories in psychiatric disorders to work with people who stutter.
PMID: 24238387 [PubMed - in process]

Regional brain activity change predicts responsiveness to treatment for stuttering in adults. - NEUROCIÊNCIAS
Brain Lang. 2013 Dec;127(3):510-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.10.007. Epub 2013 Nov 5.

Ingham RJ, Wang Y, Ingham JC, Bothe AK, Grafton ST.
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Developmental stuttering is known to be associated with aberrant brain activity, but there is no evidence that this knowledge has benefited stuttering treatment. This study investigated whether brain activity could predict progress during stuttering treatment for 21 dextral adults who stutter (AWS). They received one of two treatment programs that included periodic H2(15)O PET scanning (during oral reading, monologue, and eyes-closed rest conditions). All participants successfully completed an initial treatment phase and then entered a phase designed to transfer treatment gains; 9/21 failed to complete this latter phase. The 12 pass and 9 fail participants were similar on speech and neural system variables before treatment, and similar in speech performance after the initial phase of their treatment. At the end of the initial treatment phase, however, decreased activation within a single region, L. putamen, in all 3 scanning conditions was highly predictive of successful treatment progress.
PMID: 24210961 [PubMed - in process]

Small intragenic deletion in FOXP2 associated with childhood apraxia of speech and dysarthria. - GENÉTICA
Am J Med Genet A. 2013 Aug 5. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.36055. [Epub ahead of print]

Turner SJ, Hildebrand MS, Block S, Damiano J, Fahey M, Reilly S, Bahlo M, Scheffer IE, Morgan AT.
Department of Paediatrics, The Royal Children's Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Relatively little is known about the neurobiological basis of speech disorders although genetic determinants are increasingly recognized. The first gene for primary speech disorder was FOXP2, identified in a large, informative family with verbal and oral dyspraxia. Subsequently, many de novo and familial cases with a severe speech disorder associated with FOXP2 mutations have been reported. These mutations include sequencing alterations, translocations, uniparental disomy, and genomic copy number variants. We studied eight probands with speech disorder and their families. Family members were phenotyped using a comprehensive assessment of speech, oral motor function, language, literacy skills, and cognition. Coding regions of FOXP2 were screened to identify novel variants. Segregation of the variant was determined in the probands' families. Variants were identified in two probands. One child with severe motor speech disorder had a small de novo intragenic FOXP2 deletion. His phenotype included features of childhood apraxia of speech and dysarthria, oral motor dyspraxia, receptive and expressive language disorder, and literacy difficulties. The other variant was found in a family in two of three family members with stuttering, and also in the mother with oral motor impairment. This variant was considered a benign polymorphism as it was predicted to be non-pathogenic with in silico tools and found in database controls. This is the first report of a small intragenic deletion of FOXP2 that is likely to be the cause of severe motor speech disorder associated with language and literacy problems. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PMID: 23918746 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Speech sound articulation abilities of preschool-age children who stutter. - FALA
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Dec;38(4):325-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.09.004. Epub 2013 Oct 9.

Clark CE, Conture EG, Walden TA, Lambert WE.
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States [and others]

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the association between speech sound articulation and childhood stuttering in a relatively large sample of preschool-age children who do and do not stutter, using the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (GFTA-2; Goldman & Fristoe, 2000).
METHOD: Participants included 277 preschool-age children who do (CWS; n=128, 101 males) and do not stutter (CWNS; n=149, 76 males). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were performed to assess between-group (CWS versus CWNS) differences on the GFTA-2. Additionally, within-group correlations were performed to explore the relation between CWS' speech sound articulation abilities and their stuttering frequency and severity, as well as their sound prolongation index (SPI; Schwartz & Conture, 1988).
RESULTS: No significant differences were found between the articulation scores of preschool-age CWS and CWNS. However, there was a small gender effect for the 5-year-old age group, with girls generally exhibiting better articulation scores than boys. Additional findings indicated no relation between CWS' speech sound articulation abilities and their stuttering frequency, severity, or SPI.
CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest no apparent association between speech sound articulation-as measured by one standardized assessment (GFTA-2)-and childhood stuttering for this sample of preschool-age children (N=277).
Educational objectives: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) discuss salient issues in the articulation literature relative to children who stutter; (2) compare/contrast the present study's methodologies and main findings to those of previous studies that investigated the association between childhood stuttering and speech sound articulation; (3) identify future research needs relative to the association between childhood stuttering and speech sound development; (4) replicate the present study's methodology to expand this body of knowledge.
PMID: 24331241 [PubMed - in process] PMCID: PMC3868004 [Available on 2014/12/1]

Stuttering among children exposed to (family) high expressed emotion families. - EMOCIONAL
Ann Med Health Sci Res. 2013 Jul;3(3):469-70. doi: 10.4103/2141-9248.117941.
Free full text: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3793466/

Aslam N.
Lecturer, National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

No abstract avaliable
PMID: 24116340 [PubMed] PMCID: PMC3793466

Stuttering and work life: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. - SOCIAL
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Dec;38(4):342-55. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.08.001. Epub 2013 Aug 19.

Bricker-Katz, Lincoln, Cumming.
University of Sydney; Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Austrália

PURPOSE: The experiential claims of nine people who stuttered were examined with the purpose of determining the impact of stuttering on their work lives and to further examine what meaning they derive from these experiences.
METHOD: Six male and three female participants aged 29-61 years (mean age, 41.4) who stuttered were interviewed and verbatim interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Credibility was established by way of member checking, researcher comparison with only consensual themes and interpretations presented in the final analysis.
RESULTS: Four Superordinate themes, "stuttering is always there; stuttering at work reveals a problem; stuttering limits communication; and stuttering limits occupational progression" were distilled by descriptive and interpretative treatment of the interview transcripts. The interpretative level of analysis identified self-stigma as central to the meaning derived from these experiences. Participants' expectation of stigmatizing public attitudes, together with their own self-validation of such attitudes perpetuated diminished feelings about self-esteem and self-efficacy. Fear of negative evaluation may be heightened in the work context and might mediate feelings of self-stigma in this context.
CONCLUSIONS: Superordinate themes and their subthemes indicate that stuttering is problematic at work by way of perpetuating in the PWS an expectation of negative evaluation by others. Findings implicate issues of self-stigma as generating feelings of self-doubt and self-reproach in PWS in the workplace. The development and effects of self-stigma in PWS have broader implications than the workplace context alone and further examination of the issues of self-stigma in stuttering is recommended. Educational objectives: At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (a) describe how stuttering might affect workplace experiences; (b) describe the impact of stuttering on communication in the work context; (c) describe how qualitative methods can provide insights into the impact of stuttering in the work context; (d) describe the impact of self and public stigma on wellbeing in the work context.
PMID: 24331242 [PubMed - in process]

Stuttering prevalence, incidence and recovery rates depend on how we define it: comment on Yairi & Ambrose' article Epidemiology of stuttering: 21st century advances.
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Sep;38(3):290-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.01.002. Epub 2013 Feb 1.

Brocklehurst PH.
Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Scotland, UK.

Comment in
Defining stuttering for research purposes. [J Fluency Disord. 2013]
Comment on
Epidemiology of stuttering: 21st century advances. [J Fluency Disord. 2013]
No abstract available.
PMID: 24238390 [PubMed - in process]

The disfluent speech of a Spanish-English bilingual child who stutters - LINGUAGEM
Clin Linguist Phon. 2013 Aug 14. [Epub ahead of print]

Taliancich-Klinger CL, Byrd CT, Bedore LM.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX , USA

This study provides a detailed description of the disfluent speech behaviours produced by a 6;1-year-old bilingual Spanish-English speaking female with confirmed stuttering. Eight language samples across different contexts (narratives and conversations) with the clinician in English and Spanish and the parent in Spanish were analysed. Language samples were transcribed in the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts programme and coded for types of disfluencies based on guidelines for monolingual English speakers. Similarities and differences were noted in speech disfluencies produced in English as compared Spanish. Overall, the participant was more disfluent in English across both her narrative and her conversational output. However, she produced more stuttering-like disfluencies in her Spanish narrative sample than her English narrative sample. Conversely, she produced more nonstuttering-like disfluencies in her English than her Spanish narrative sample. These findings suggest stuttering specific as well as language specific contributors to the fluency breakdowns that characterize the speech output of a bilingual Spanish English child who stutters.
PMID: 23944959 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

The role of psychological processes in estimates of stuttering severity. EMOCIONAL
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Dec;38(4):356-67. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.08.002. Epub 2013 Aug 19.

Manning W, Gayle Beck J.
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Psychology, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States.

PURPOSE: To examine the associations of trait anxiety (STAI), social anxiety (SIAS), depression (BDI-II), and personality features (ADP-IV) with three measures of stuttering severity: %SS, Stuttering Severity, Instrument, and the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering.
METHOD: Fifty adults with a history of stuttering served as participants. Participant scores on trait, anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and personality features were entered into a regression analysis, with the criterion variables (DVs) being: %SS, SSI-3, OASES total score. In order to explore the OASES, further, each of the four OASES subscales were also examined. A separate regression was conducted for, each dependent variable.
RESULTS: The OASES total score model was significant (p<.0001) and revealed that social anxiety and, trait anxiety were the only significant predictors, with medium effect sizes noted for both variables. In contrast, percent syllables stuttered and the SSI were not significantly associated with psychological, variables, suggesting that anxiety may not always be related to overt indicators of stuttering. Depression and personality dysfunction were not significantly associated with any measure of, stuttering severity.
CONCLUSION: Anxiety in the form of social and trait anxiety are significantly associated with stuttering, severity as indicated by the OASES. Traditional procedures for assigning severity ratings to individuals, who stutter based on percent syllables stuttered and the Stuttering Severity Instrument are not, significantly related to psychological processes central to the stuttering experience. Depression and, personality characteristics do not meaningfully account for stuttering.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) differentiate forms of anxiety that are likely to be associated with stuttering (b) understand the importance of determining features of stuttering that go beyond the obvious, surface characteristics of stuttering frequency, and (c) discuss the important clinical and theoretical implications for understanding the degree of psychological dysfunction that is likely to be characteristic of those who stutter.
PMID: 24331243 [PubMed - in process]

The social and communication impact of stuttering on adolescents and their families. - SOCIAL
J Fluency Disord. 2013 Dec;38(4):311-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2013.09.003. Epub 2013 Oct 1.

Erickson S, Block S.
School of Human Communication Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3088, Australia.

PURPOSE: Stuttering can cause wide ranging psychosocial impact. This is particularly the case for adolescents who may face additional physical, emotional and personality changes as they become adults. This study reports the findings of an investigation into the social and communication impacts of stuttering on Australian adolescents seeking treatment for stuttering and their families.
METHOD: A cross-sectional design utilising questionnaires assessed the self-perceived communication competence and apprehension, stigma and disclosure, and experiences of teasing and bullying of 36 adolescents who stutter. Additionally, the impact of stuttering on the families of these adolescents was investigated.
RESULTS: Adolescents who stutter have below average self-perceived communication competence, heightened communication apprehension, are teased and bullied more often than fluent peers, and they try to keep their stuttering secret. The families of the adolescents in the study reported high levels of emotional strain, family conflict and difficulty managing their child's frustrations.
CONCLUSION: The findings from this study emphasise the wide-ranging impact of stuttering beyond the surface level behaviours. Clinicians working with adolescents who stutter should take note of both the outcomes of this study and the suggestions for more effectively coping with the condition in this population. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) summarise findings with regards to the impact of stuttering on an adolescent's social and communication skills; (b) summarise areas of impact on the families of adolescents who stutter; (c) compare these findings with previous reported data for this population; (d) discuss the clinical implications of the results for working with adolescents who stutter and their families.
PMID: 24331240 [PubMed - in process]

Using statistical process control charts to study stuttering frequency variability during a single day. - AVALIAÇÃO
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2013 Dec 1;56(6):1789-99. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2013/12-0328).
Erratum in J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2014 Apr 1;57(2):705

Karimi H, O'Brian S, Onslow M, Jones M, Menzies R, Packman A.

PURPOSE Stuttering varies between and within speaking situations. In this study, the authors used statistical process control charts with 10 case studies to investigate variability of stuttering frequency. METHOD Participants were 10 adults who stutter. The authors counted the percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) for segments of their speech during different speaking activities over a 12-hr day. Results for each participant were plotted on control charts. RESULTS All participants showed marked variation around mean stuttering frequency. However, there was no pattern of that variation consistent across the 10 participants. According to control charts, the %SS scores of half the participants were indicative of unpredictable, out-of-control systems, and the %SS scores of the other half of the participants were not. Self-rated stuttering severity and communication satisfaction correlated significantly and intuitively with the number of times participants exceeded their upper control chart limits. CONCLUSIONS Control charts are a useful method to study how %SS scores might be applied to the study of stuttering variability during research and clinical practice. However, the method presents some practical problems, and the authors discuss how those problems can be solved. Solving those problems would enable researchers and clinicians to better plan, conduct, and evaluate stuttering treatments.
PMID: 24687440 [PubMed - in process]

Zonisamide efficacy as adjunctive therapy in children with refractory epilepsy. - FARMACOLOGIA
Iran J Child Neurol. 2013 Spring;7(2):37-42.
Free Full Text - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3943038/pdf/ijcn-7-037.pdf

Karimzadeh P, Ashrafi MR, Bakhshandeh Bali MK, Nasehi MM, Taheri Otaghsara SM, Taghdiri MM, Ghofrani M.
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, (TUMS), Tehran, Iran

OBJECTIVE: Approximately one third of epileptic children do not achieve complete seizure improvement. Zonisamide is a new antiepileptic drug which is effective as adjunctive therapy in treatment of intractable partial seizures. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of Zonisamide in epileptic children.
MATERIALS & METHODS: From November 2011 until October 2012, 68 children who referred to Children's Medical Center and Mofid Children Hospital due to refractory epilepsy (failure of seizure control with the use of two or more anticonvulsant drugs) entered the study. The patients were treated with Zonisamide by dose of 2- 12 mg/kg daily in addition to the previous medication. We followed the children every three to four-weeks intervals based on daily frequency, severity and duration of seizures. During the follow-up equal and more than fifty percent reduction in seizure frequency or severity known as response to the drug.
RESULTS: In this study 68 patients were examined that 61 children reached the last stage.35 (57.4%) were male and 26 (42.6%) patients were female. After first and six months of Zonisamide administration daily seizure frequency decreased to 2.95±3.54 and 3.73±3.5 respectively. There was significant difference between seizure frequency in first and six month after Zonisamide toward initial attacks. After six months ZNS therapy a little side effects were created in 10 patients (16.4%) including stuttering(4.9%), decreased appetite (4.9%), hallucination (1.6%), dizziness(1.6%), blurred vision(1.6%) and suspiring(1.6%) as all of them eliminated later dosage reduction.
CONCLUSION: This study conﬁrms the short term efﬁcacy and safety of Zonisamide in children with refractory epilepsies.PMID: 24665295 [PubMed]