A Comparison Study of Interjectional Characteristics between People Who Stutter and People Who Do Not Stutter

Ha, Ji-Wan; Sim, Hyun Sub

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2008;13(3): 438-453.

Ji-Wan Ha^` , and Hyun Sub Sim^`

하지완(Ji-Wan Ha)| 심현섭(Hyun Sub Sim)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
Some of previous studies reported that the frequencies of interjection did not differ between people who stutter (PWS) and people who do not stutter (PWNS). The purpose of the present study was to compare the frequencies of interjection between PWS and PWNS and to investigate the interjectional characteristics in each group.
Methods
The ratios in single interjections and multiple interjections were compared between children who stutter and children who do not stutter, and between adults who stutter and adults who do not stutter. This study evaluated whether mean utterance length and mean syntactic complexity in each group were associated with changes in frequency of interjections, and whether utterance length and syntactic complexity were significantly different between utterances with interjection and utterances without interjection within a subject.
Results
There was a significant difference only in the multiple interjectional ratio between adults who stutter and adults who do not stutter. Pearson correlations in interjectional ratio-utterance length and in interjectional ratio-syntactic complexity were not significant except in children who do not stutter. Utterances with interjection were significantly more complex and longer than utterances without interjection.
Discussion & Conclusion
The findings suggest that interjectional ratios should be qualitatively as well as quantitatively compared between PWS and PWNS.