Linguistic factors associated with stuttering-like disfluencies in Japanese preschool and school-aged children who stutter

Introduction

Stuttering is influenced by different linguistic factors, such as sentence- and word-level factors. However, its developmental differences remain unclear. Thus, this study examined the developmental differences in the linguistic factors associated with stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) among Japanese preschool and school-aged children who stutter.

Methods

We analyzed utterances from 30 Japanese-speaking children who stutter aged 5–10 years. Participants were divided into three groups according to their age (5–6, 7–8, and 9–10 years old).

Results

Significant effects of sentence length, bunsetsu length, syllable weight, and bi-mora frequency on SLD frequency were observed across the age groups. In contrast, there was not a significant effect of mora frequency on SLD frequency.

Conclusions

Both sentence- and word-level factors affected SLD in children who stutter aged 5–10 years. Future research should be conducted with children below 5 years of age to observe detailed developmental differences in the linguistic factors that affect stuttering.