Misericordia University, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Dallas, PA, USA; University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of Communicative Disorders, Lafayette, LA, USA.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2014 Jan-Feb;49(1):75-89. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12048. Epub 2013 Sep 11.
In recent years, there has been increased identification of disfluencies in individuals with autism, but limited examination of disfluencies in the school-age range of this population. We currently lack information about whether the disfluencies of children with autism represent concomitant stuttering, normal disfluency, excessive normal disfluency, or some form of disfluency unique to the school-age population of children with autism.
This paper explores the nature of disfluencies in school-aged children with autism in comparison with matched children who stutter and controls. It explores stuttering-like disfluencies, non-stuttering-like disfluencies and word-final disfluencies.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: This study compared disfluency patterns in 11 school-aged children with Asperger's syndrome (AS), 11 matched children who stutter (CWS), and 11 matched children with no diagnosis (ND). Analyses were based on speech samples collected during an expository discourse task.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Results reveal statistically significant differences between children with AS and CWS and between children with AS and those with ND for the percentage of words containing stuttering-like disfluencies. In the AS group, four out of 11 (36%) met the common diagnostic criteria for a fluency disorder. Disfluencies in the AS group differed qualitatively and quantitatively from the CWS, and included a larger distribution of word-final disfluencies.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: This study provides initial data regarding patterns of disfluency in school-aged children with AS that, with careful consideration and the cautious application of all findings, can assist therapists in making more evidence-based diagnostic decisions. Findings offer evidence that when working with children with AS, disfluencies both similar and dissimilar to those of CWS may be identified in at least a subset of those with AS. Therefore, children with AS should be screened for fluency disorders during their initial evaluation and treated if it is determined that the fluency disorder negatively impacts the effectiveness of communication.
近年来，人们越来越多地发现自闭症个体存在不流畅现象，但对该人群学龄期的不流畅现象的研究却很有限。我们目前还不清楚自闭症儿童的不流畅现象是否代表同时存在口吃、正常不流畅、过度正常不流畅，或是某种仅存在于自闭症学龄儿童群体的独特不流畅现象。
本文通过与口吃儿童和对照组进行比较，探讨了自闭症学龄儿童不流畅现象的本质。本文探讨了类似口吃的不流畅现象、非类似口吃的不流畅现象和词尾不流畅现象。
本研究比较了 11 名阿斯伯格综合征（AS）学龄儿童、11 名匹配的口吃儿童（CWS）和 11 名无诊断儿童（ND）的不流畅模式。分析基于在说明文话语任务中收集的语音样本。
结果显示，AS 儿童与 CWS 儿童以及 AS 儿童与 ND 儿童在包含类似口吃的不流畅现象的单词百分比上存在显著差异。在 AS 组中，有 4 名儿童（36%）符合口吃障碍的常见诊断标准。AS 组的不流畅现象在质量和数量上都与 CWS 不同，包括更多的词尾不流畅现象分布。
本研究首次提供了 AS 学龄儿童不流畅模式的相关数据，在仔细考虑并谨慎应用所有发现的情况下，这些数据可以帮助治疗师做出更基于证据的诊断决策。研究结果表明，在与 AS 儿童合作时，可能会在至少一部分 AS 儿童中识别出与 CWS 相似和不相似的不流畅现象。因此，AS 儿童应在其初始评估中进行流畅性障碍筛查，如果确定流畅性障碍对沟通效果有负面影响，则应进行治疗。
