Speech sound articulation abilities of preschool-age children who stutter.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the association between speech sound articulation and childhood stuttering in a relatively large sample of preschool-age children who do and do not stutter, using the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 (GFTA-2; Goldman & Fristoe, 2000).

METHOD: Participants included 277 preschool-age children who do (CWS; n=128, 101 males) and do not stutter (CWNS; n=149, 76 males). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were performed to assess between-group (CWS versus CWNS) differences on the GFTA-2. Additionally, within-group correlations were performed to explore the relation between CWS' speech sound articulation abilities and their stuttering frequency and severity, as well as their sound prolongation index (SPI; Schwartz & Conture, 1988).

RESULTS: No significant differences were found between the articulation scores of preschool-age CWS and CWNS. However, there was a small gender effect for the 5-year-old age group, with girls generally exhibiting better articulation scores than boys. Additional findings indicated no relation between CWS' speech sound articulation abilities and their stuttering frequency, severity, or SPI.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest no apparent association between speech sound articulation-as measured by one standardized assessment (GFTA-2)-and childhood stuttering for this sample of preschool-age children (N=277).

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) discuss salient issues in the articulation literature relative to children who stutter; (2) compare/contrast the present study's methodologies and main findings to those of previous studies that investigated the association between childhood stuttering and speech sound articulation; (3) identify future research needs relative to the association between childhood stuttering and speech sound development; (4) replicate the present study's methodology to expand this body of knowledge.