Solving the mystery of intermittent fluency breaks in a preschool child: chronic stuttering or normal fluency breaks?

The possibility of chronic stuttering is investigated in a preschool boy with a brief history of intermittent fluency breaks. The variability of the behavior adds to the mystery and makes the diagnosis of unusual or stuttering-like fluency breaks particularly difficult. Clues for solving this mystery are obtained from both the child and his parents. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors are considered, and the child's capacity for producing fluent speech is stressed during a formal evaluation to determine the effect of communicative demands. Detective work by the investigator takes the reader through a series of diagnostic decisions that eventually leads to cracking the case.