Disfluency, speech rate, and communication attitude differences according to gender and age in adults who do not stutter

Abstract

Objectives: Diverse speech samples should be analyzed due to variability in stuttering. However, there are limited Korean studies on the variability of disfluencies in adults who do not stutter for comparison with assessment data of adults who stutter. In addition, even though speech rate can be an indicator of treatment progress, differences in previous studies' methodologies make them difficult to employ in a clinic setting. The primary purpose of the current study is to determine whether there are differences in disfluencies and overall speech rate of adults who do not stutter (AWNS) according to gender and age in order to provide clinical comparative data for adults who stutter. Differences in communication attitude according to age and gender were also analyzed. Methods: A total of 81 AWNS took part in the current study. Three compulsory tasks of the Paradise-Fluency Assessment- II were conducted and normal and abnormal disfluency scores of each task were determined. Overall speech rate was determined for reading samples, and a communication attitude test was also conducted. Two-way ANOVA and repeated measure ANOVA were used to determine whether differences in disfluency scores, overall speech rate, and communication attitude test scores were significant according to age, gender, and situation. Results: There were limited significant differences in disfluencies according to gender, with no significant difference according to age. There was a significant difference in overall speech rate according to age but not to gender. There was no significant difference in communication attitude according to age and gender. Conclusion: The results of the current study showed that both quantity and quality of disfluencies should be considered in stuttering assessment. In addition, in order to have a broader perspective on stuttering, more diverse age groups should be included in future studies.