Characteristics of Revisions in Relation to Language Ability in Children Who Stutter

Lee, Soo-bok; Yim, Dongsun; Sim, Hyun Sub

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2011;16(1): 46-61.

Soo-bok Lee^` , Dongsun Yim^` , and Hyun Sub Sim^`

이수복(Soo-bok Lee)|임동선(Dongsun Yim)|심현섭(Hyun Sub Sim)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
The purposes of this study were to investigate the characteristics of revision between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) and to examine the trade-off effects between language and revisions.
Methods
Thirty children (15 CWS and 15 age-matched CWNS) aged 3-6 years participated in the study. The participants provided language samples (200 syllables) of picture descriptions, which were then analyzed and compared. A total frequency of revision, mean length of utterance (MLU), mean length word of C-unit(MLC-w) with revision and without revision, and revision error types were analyzed. ANOVA and correlational analysis were used to analyze the data.
Results
There were four main findings regarding the characteristics of revision in children with and without dysfluency. First, there was a statistically significant difference between groups in the total frequency of revision. Second, the revised utterances of CWS were significantly longer and more complex than were those without revision. Third, both groups more often exhibited semantic error types, followed by syntactic error types. Lastly, CWS exhibited significantly more revisions with longer, more complex utterances.
Discussion & Conclusion
Overall, our findings suggested that revisions increase when the language demand exceeds the child's capacity. Additionally, revisions are the product of an interaction between internal language construct components and monitoring ability. These results provide evidence that speech language pathologists need to consider the internal language construct components related to revision in the course of assessment and treatment.