Speech motor skills of stuttering children

In the past speech motor skills of stuttering adults have frequently been analyzed. In contrast to this studies with children are scare and came to disagreeing results. In this study speech motor skills of forty 6-11-year-old children (twenty stutterers, twenty non-stutterers) were examined by an extensive evaluation of the diadochokinesia [1]. Analyzes show, that - regarding the diadochokinesia - stuttering children have significantly worse speechmotor skills. Within the group of stuttering children subgroups with different levels of speech motor discoordination were found. For moderate and severe stutterers there seems to be a connection to the level of severity of stuttering; all children in this study showed severe speech motor discoordination. A comparison of temporal-acoustic characteristics (voice onset time, vowel duration, stop gap) did not reveal any group differences, but a higher variability within the stuttering group (interindividual) and within each stuttering person (intra-individual). This could be explained by an unstable speech motor control, which contributes to the development of disfluencies. The Oral Motor Assessment Scale (OMAS), which was tested in this study, seems to be appropriate for use in diagnosis of stuttering people; it is efficient, contains normative data and allows a precise evaluation of speech motor skills.