Phonological Priming In Young Children Who Stutter: Holistic Versus Incremental Processing

Purpose: To investigate the holistic versus incremental phonological encoding processes of young children who stutter (CWS; N = 26) and age- and gender-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS; N = 26) via a picture-naming auditory priming paradigm. Method: Children named pictures during 3 auditory priming conditions: neutral, holistic, and incremental. Speech reaction time (SRT) was measured from the onset of picture presentation to the onset of participant response. Results: CWNS shifted from being significantly faster in the holistic priming condition to being significantly faster in the incremental priming condition from 3 to 5 years of age. In contrast, the majority of 3- and 5-year-old CWS continued to exhibit faster SRT in the holistic than the incremental condition. Conclusion: CWS are delayed in making the developmental shift in phonological encoding from holistic to incremental processing, a delay that may contribute to their difficulties establishing fluent speech.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Effects Of Length, Complexity, And Grammatical Correctness On Stuttering In Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children

Purpose: To explore the effects of utterance length, syntactic complexity, and grammatical correctness on stuttering in the spontaneous speech of young, monolingual Spanish-speaking children. Method: Spontaneous speech samples of 11 monolingual Spanish-speaking children who stuttered, ages 35 to 70 months, were examined. Mean number of syllables, total number of clauses, utterance complexity (i.e., containing no clauses, simple clauses, or subordinate and/or conjoined clauses), and grammatical correctness (i.e., the presence or absence of morphological and syntactical errors) in stuttered and fluent utterances were compared. Results: Findings revealed that stuttered utterances in Spanish tended to be longer and more often grammatically incorrect, and contain more clauses, including more subordinate and/or conjoined clauses. However, when controlling for the interrelatedness of syllable number and clause number and complexity, only utterance length and grammatical incorrectness were significant predictors of stuttering in the spontaneous speech of these Spanish-speaking children. Use of complex utterances did not appear to contribute to the prediction of stuttering when controlling for utterance length. Conclusions: Results from the present study were consistent with many earlier reports of English-speaking children. Both length and grammatical factors appear to affect stuttering in Spanish-speaking children. Grammatical errors, however, served as the greatest predictor of stuttering.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Mycobacterium abscessus-Induced Granuloma Formation Is Strictly Dependent on TNF Signaling and Neutrophil Trafficking

Mycobacterium abscessus is considered the most common respiratory pathogen among the rapidly growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria. Infections with M. abscessus are increasingly found in patients with chronic lung diseases, especially cystic fibrosis, and are often refractory to antibiotic therapy. M. abscessus has two morphotypes with distinct effects on host cells and biological responses. The smooth (S) variant is recognized as the initial airway colonizer while the rough (R) is known to be a potent inflammatory inducer associated with invasive disease, but the underlying immunopathological mechanisms of the infection remain unsolved. We conducted a comparative stepwise dissection of the inflammatory response in S and R pathogenesis by monitoring infected transparent zebrafish embryos. Loss of TNFR1 function resulted in increased mortality with both variants, and was associated with unrestricted intramacrophage bacterial growth and decreased bactericidal activity. The use of transgenic zebrafish lines harboring fluorescent macrophages and neutrophils revealed that neutrophils, like macrophages, interact with M. abscessus at the initial infection sites. Impaired TNF signaling disrupted the IL8-dependent neutrophil mobilization, and the defect in neutrophil trafficking led to the formation of aberrant granulomas, extensive mycobacterial cording, unrestricted bacterial growth and subsequent larval death. Our findings emphasize the central role of neutrophils for the establishment and maintenance of the protective M. abscessus granulomas. These results also suggest that the TNF/IL8 inflammatory axis is necessary for protective immunity against M. abscessus and may be of clinical relevance to explain why immunosuppressive TNF therapy leads to the exacerbation of M. abscessus infections

From Grapheme to Phonological Output: Performance of Adults Who Stutter on a Word Jumble Task

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to extend previous research by analyzing the ability of adults who stutter to use phonological working memory in conjunction with lexical access to perform a word jumble task. Method Forty English words consisting of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-letters (n = 10 per letter length category) were randomly jumbled using a web-based application. During the experimental task, 26 participants were asked to silently manipulate the scrambled letters to form a real word. Each vocal response was coded for accuracy and speech reaction time (SRT). Results Adults who stutter attempted to solve fewer word jumble stimuli than adults who do not stutter at the 4-letter, 5-letter, and 6-letter lengths. Additionally, adults who stutter were significantly less accurate solving word jumble tasks at the 4-letter, 5-letter, and 6-letter lengths compared to adults who do not stutter. At the longest word length (6-letter), SRT was significantly slower for the adults who stutter than the fluent controls. Conclusion Results of the current study lend further support to the notion that differences in various aspects of phonological processing, including vision-to-sound conversions, sub-vocal stimulus manipulation, and/or lexical access are compromised in adults who stutter

Participation in Camp Dream. Speak. Live: Affective and Cognitive Outcomes for Children who Stutter

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of participation in Camp Dream. Speak. Live., an intensive therapy program, on the communication attitudes, peer relationships and quality of life of children who stutter. Method: Participants were 23 children who stutter (n=5 females; n=18 males; age range 4–14 years) who attended a weeklong intensive therapy program that was exclusively developed to address the affective and cognitive components of stuttering. Outcome measures included the KiddyCAT Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children who Stutter, the Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES), and the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Pediatric Peer Relationships Form. Parents of children who participated in the program completed online parent proxy versions of the Kiddy-CAT, OASES, and PROMIS approximately one month after their child’s participation in Camp Dream. Speak. Live. concluded. Results: Results suggest that participation in Camp Dream. Speak. Live. led to significant increases in the child’s communication attitude, the child’s perception of his/her ability to make friends, and also significantly reduced the impact of stuttering on the child’s overall quality of life. Additionally, parents of children who participated in Camp Dream. Speak. Live. reported they observed positive increases in their child’s perception of his/her own ability to make friends as well as significant decreases in their child’s perspective of the impact of stuttering on his/her overall quality of life. Conclusion: Results support the notion that significant improvements in communication attitude as well as significant reductions in the impact of stuttering on overall quality of life can be achieved in a short period of time

Nonword Repetition and Phoneme Elision in Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutter: Vocal Versus Nonvocal Performance Differences

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to enhance our understanding of phonological working memory in adults who stutter through the comparison of nonvocal versus vocal nonword repetition and phoneme elision task performance differences. Method For the vocal nonword repetition condition, participants repeated sets of 4- and 7-syllable nonwords (n = 12 per set). For the nonvocal nonword repetition condition, participants silently identified each target nonword from a subsequent set of three nonwords. For the vocal phoneme elision condition, participants repeated nonwords with a target phoneme eliminated. For the nonvocal phoneme elision condition, participants silently identified the nonword with the designated target phoneme eliminated from a subsequent set of three nonwords. Results Adults who stutter produced significantly fewer accurate initial productions of 7-syllable nonwords compared to adults who do not stutter. There were no talker group differences for the silent identification of nonwords, but both talker groups required significantly more mean number of attempts to accurately silently identify 7-syllable as compared to 4-syllable nonwords. For the vocal phoneme elision condition, adults who stutter were significantly less accurate than adults who do not stutter in their initial production and required a significantly higher mean number of attempts to accurately produce 7-syllable nonwords with a phoneme eliminated. This talker group difference was also significant for the nonvocal phoneme elision condition for both 4- and 7-syllable nonwords. Conclusion Present findings suggest phonological working memory may contribute to the difficulties persons who stutter have establishing and/or maintaining fluent speech

Post-event processing in adults who stutter (Croft & Byrd, 2023)

Purpose: Post-event processing, defined by self-critical rumination following a stressful communication event, is significantly associated with reduced quality of life. However, despite its relevance to the stuttering experience, to date, only a few studies have investigated post-event processing among adults who stutter, and no study has identified clinical and psychosocial predictors of post-event processing. The purpose of this study was to determine the contributions of clinical markers of stuttering and psychosocial variables to post-event processing.Method: Adults who stutter (N = 96) participated in two virtual sessions. After completing the Trier Social Stress Test, a standardized social stress task in Session 1, participants completed measures of post-event processing, clinical markers of stuttering (i.e., the experience of stuttering, self- and observer-rated stuttering severity), and psychosocial characteristics (i.e., self-perceived performance, self-esteem, social anxiety, trait, and state self-compassion) in Session 2.Results: Hierarchical linear regression models indicated that a more negative experience of stuttering, higher self-rated stuttering severity, and greater social anxiety predicted more post-event processing. Greater self-perceived performance and state self-compassion predicted less rumination. Observer-rated severity, self-esteem, and trait self-compassion were not significantly associated with post-event processing behavior.Conclusion: Findings reveal clinical and psychosocial variables to consider in the assessment and mitigation of post-event processing behavior in adults who stutter, and to bolster resiliency to social stress.Supplemental Material S1. R code.Croft, R., & Byrd C. T. (2023). Clinical and psychosocial predictors of post-event processing in adults who stutter. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00245</p