Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 164 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States.
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, California State University Long Beach, CA, United States.
J Commun Disord. 2023 Nov-Dec;106:106369. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106369. Epub 2023 Sep 6.
The purpose of the study was to compare school-age children who stutter (CWS) and age-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS) in syntactic abilities and syntactic performance.
Computerized Language Sample Analysis (LSA) was conducted on the conversation samples obtained from 46 school-age CWS and CWNS between 7 and 16 years (CWS, n = 23). Syntactic abilities were assessed using the Index of Productive Syntax (the IPsyn) and Developmental Sentence Scores (DSS) and mixed effects logistic regression analyses with participants as random effects were conducted to determine if the scores were predictive of group membership. Additionally, the groups were compared in the IPsyn subcategories to assess the use of syntactic structures. Syntactic performance was assessed by: (a) Categorizing the sentences from each conversation sample into high vs. low syntactic complexity categories based on DSS scores and comparing the sentence categories in % stuttered sentences (% SS); and (b) Comparing the groups in the proportion of phrase-level disfluencies (phrase repetitions vs. revisions) that are associated with syntactic planning.
In terms of syntactic abilities, the IPsyn scores interacted with the number of utterances (sample size) used to compute the scores in predicting group membership. In comparison to the CWNS, the CWS obtained higher scores in the IPsyn and the sentence structure subcategory of the IPsyn that were independent of sample size. In terms of syntactic performance: (a) Significantly more sentences were stuttered in the high compared to the low syntactic sentence category; (b) Compared to the CWNS who demonstrated significantly more phrase revisions, the CWS showed comparable and fewer phrase revisions and repetitions. Additionally, post-hoc analysis showed that the CWS used significantly elaborated noun phrases and a similar trend was evident for verb phrase elaborations. A significant association between verb phrase elaborations and%SS was also obtained.
Findings from the IPsyn and the use of elaborate noun phrases, and to some extent verb phrases, suggested that the CWS used more complex syntax even in shorter conversational samples. More stuttered sentences in the high DSS sentence category, the use of fewer phrase revisions, and the association between stuttering and elaborated verb phrases in the CWS are interpreted to suggest the effects of syntactic planning and reformulation demands on fluency during ongoing articulation.
本研究旨在比较口吃儿童（CWS）和年龄匹配的不口吃儿童（CWNS）在句法能力和句法表现方面的差异。
对 46 名 7 至 16 岁的学龄期 CWS 和 CWNS 的对话样本进行计算机语言样本分析（LSA）。使用生产性句法指数（IPsyn）和发展性句子得分（DSS）评估句法能力，并采用参与者为随机效应的混合效应逻辑回归分析，以确定得分是否能预测群体归属。此外，在 Ipsyn 子类别中对两组进行比较，以评估句法结构的使用情况。句法表现通过以下两种方式进行评估：（a）根据 DSS 得分将每个对话样本中的句子分为高句法复杂度和低句法复杂度类别，并比较%口吃句子（%SS）中的句子类别；（b）比较两组在与句法计划相关的短语级不流畅（短语重复与修正）的比例。
在句法能力方面，Ipsyn 得分与用于计算得分的话语数量（样本大小）相互作用，预测群体归属。与 CWNS 相比，CWS 在 Ipsyn 得分和 Ipsyn 的句子结构子类别中获得了更高的得分，而这些得分与样本大小无关。在句法表现方面：（a）高句法复杂度句子比低句法复杂度句子的口吃率更高；（b）与 CWNS 相比，CWS 表现出更多的短语修正，而短语重复和短语修正的比例相当。此外，事后分析表明，CWS 使用了更复杂的名词短语，动词短语的修饰也有类似的趋势。动词短语修饰与%SS 之间也存在显著关联。
来自 Ipsyn 的发现以及对复杂名词短语的使用，在一定程度上对动词短语的使用，表明 CWS 即使在较短的对话样本中也使用了更复杂的句法。在高 DSS 句子类别中，口吃句子比例较高，短语修正比例较低，以及 CWS 中口吃与修饰动词短语之间的关联，都表明在持续发音过程中，句法计划和重新表述需求对流畅性有影响。
