Movement kinematics and speech accuracy in a nonword repetition task in school-age children who stutter

We investigated sensorimotor processes in school-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) in a nonword repetition (NWR) task and evaluated changes in behavioral (percent speech accuracy) and speech kinematics measures (lip aperture variability, movement duration) with practice and retention. Thirteen CWS and 13 CWNS divided into two age groups (younger, 8-12 years; n = 6, older, 13-15 years, n = 7) repeated nonwords varying in phonological properties over two sessions separated by an hour. Participants in both groups also completed several baseline measures, including tests of digit span and nonword repetition (NRT). A marginal trend for lower speech accuracy was noted in the CWS compared to the CWNS in the NWR task. The younger CWS also performed poorly compared to the older CWS and age-matched CWNS in the NRT. Findings provided weak support for limitations in initial encoding and subsequent retrieval of phonemic information. The CWS demonstrated significantly reduced interarticulatory coordination for the 3-syllable nonwords. While both groups demonstrated significantly slower movements with increase in nonword complexity at the 3-syllable level, such differences were enhanced in the CWS group and influenced further by participant age. Additionally, digit span influenced movement coordination in both groups with only the CWNS showing a significant negative correlation between the digit span scores and movement variability at the onset of practice in Session 1. The findings offer limited support for a sensorimotor integration deficit in CWS and the contributions of cognitive mechanisms to performance in NWR.