Rate of Stuttering and Factors Associated With Speech Fluency Characteristics in Adult Struggling Readers

BY AI LEEN CHOO, DAPHNE GREENBERG, HONGLI LI AND AMANI TALWAR

Adult Struggling Readers

Our study spotlights an overlooked population: adult struggling readers. It is the first study to examine stuttering in this population. About one in five adults in the United States struggles with reading. Examples of difficulties can be found in areas such as word reading accuracy, reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. We were particularly interested in understanding the prevalence of stuttering in adults attending literacy programs to improve their reading skills. There has been no research on stuttering in this group.

What is Stuttering?

Around the world, stuttering is a communication disorder that affects about 1% of the population. People who stutter show excessive levels of specific types of speech disruptions or disfluencies including: part-word repetitions (repeating the first sound in a word; e.g., c-c-c-cat), single-syllable word repetitions (repeating words that are one syllable in length; e.g., The-the-the-the), prolongations (holding on to a sound; e.g., ssssstutter), blocks (trouble starting or saying a sound; e.g., ----car), phonological fragments (starting but then abandoning a word; e.g., pas-spaghetti), and broken words (pausing within a word; e.g., wa-ter).

People who stutter also show other types of speech disfluencies that are not considered stuttering. These types of speech disfluencies are commonly found in people who do not stutter and include: interjections (e.g., um), phrase and word revisions (revising a phrase or word; e.g., What did…? Where did?), phrase and multisyllabic word repetitions (repeating phrases or words that are more than one syllable in length; e.g., curtain . . . curtain) and pauses that are marked by an absence of speech.

What Did We Learn from the Study?

Higher Rate of Stuttering in Adult Struggling Readers

In our study, we investigated the rate and profile of stuttering in adult struggling readers. We found that nearly a fifth of adult struggling readers met the clinical criterion for stuttering. This criterion is based on the presence of at least 3% of part-word repetitions, single-syllable word repetitions, prolongations, or blocks when speaking. This means that adult struggling readers are nearly 20 times more likely to stutter compared to the general population. One reason for this could be that the skills needed for reading, such as the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds, are also abilities required for speaking fluently. In other words, people who have difficulties with reading may also be more likely to have difficulties with speech.

Two of the most common types of stuttering disfluencies found in adult struggling readers were single-syllable word repetitions and phonological fragments. Compared to adult struggling readers who do not stutter, adult struggling readers who stutter also showed more phrase repetitions and multisyllabic word repetitions.

Similar Levels of Reading and Related Skills for Adults Struggling Readers Who Do and Do Not Stutter

In our study, adult struggling readers who stuttered showed equivalent levels of performance in reading and reading-related tests compared to the struggling readers who did not stutter. For example, the performance on tests for decoding (where they had to read aloud words and nonwords; e.g., Woodcock-Johnson III Normative Update [WJ] Letter-Word Identification), reading comprehension (where they silently read a passage and identified missing words; WJ Passage Comprehension), and expressive vocabulary (where they named pictures; WJ Picture Vocabulary) were similar for adult struggling readers who do and do not stutter.

Conclusion

In our study, adult struggling readers showed a higher prevalence for stuttering compared to the general population. However, in comparison to adult struggling readers who do not stutter, stuttering does not seem to further impact reading skills. Our findings raise the question of whether assessments for stuttering should be considered in the adult literacy field. This is an important step toward meeting the needs of an overlooked population, specifically, adult struggling readers who may also have the added challenge of stuttering.

Funding Acknowledgement

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305C120001 Georgia State University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

read the article

Article Details
Rate of Stuttering and Factors Associated With Speech Fluency Characteristics in Adult Struggling Readers
Ai Leen Choo, Daphne Greenberg, Hongli Li, and Amani Talwar
First Published May 12, 2022
DOI: 10.1177/00222194221095265
Journal of Learning Disabilities

About the Authors

Featured

Ai Leen Choo is an Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She received her doctorate in Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan. The aim of her research is to improve the identification and treatment for stuttering, and to improve the quality of life for people who stutter. Her current lines of research are focused on understanding the relationship between bilingualism and stuttering, the impact of stuttering on cognitive development, and stuttering in adults who struggle with reading.

Featured

Daphne Greenberg is a Distinguished University Professor of Educational Psychology and the Director of the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University. Her research focus is on adults who struggle with reading. She has published on various aspects of adult literacy including health literacy, family literacy, reading components, and reading interventions. Funding for her research has come from diverse local, foundation, university, and federal funding sources. She has tutored native and nonnative English-speaking adult nonreaders, organized literacy advocacy groups and has helped communities develop community-based adult literacy programs.

Featured

Hongli Li is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University. She graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a Ph.D. in educational psychology specializing in educational measurement. Her primary research areas are applied measurement and quantitative methods in education. In particular, she is interested in test validity and fairness, and how testing influences teaching and learning (cognitive diagnostic modeling and formative assessment).

Featured

Amani Talwar, Ph.D., is a Researcher at American Institutes for Research. Her current work focuses on improving education and workforce outcomes for adults and youth in underserved populations. Dr. Talwar was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Georgia State University, where she conducted research involving adult learners and postsecondary students with low literacy skills. Her work has been published in journals such as Scientific Studies of Reading, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Reading and Writing.