Prediction of Spontaneous Recovery and Persistence in Individual Preschool Stuttering Children

Bruce Ryan

During a 10-year longitudinal study of 22 preschool children who stuttered, concurrent with that of Yairi and associates (1999, 2004), we first observed the children for 15 months, at 4-month intervals, without treatment or counseling, to determine the individual trends (at least 3 measures over time) for spontaneous recovery or persistence. A downward trend predicted recovery while an upward or flat trend predicted persistence. Trend inspection of one repeated test alone was 95.5% (21/22) accurate in the prediction of recovery or persistence. Individual analyses suggested problems: 33% (5) false positive and 6% (1) false negative. Solutions will be offered.