The Influences of Linguistic Complexity on Fluency for Developmental Stuttering: With a Focus on Native Japanese Children

Hara Yuki

The purposes of this study are to assess the influence of linguistic complexity on fluency for young Japanese children who stutter, and to obtain useful data for planning treatment programs. The subjects were Japanese children with developmental stuttering (n=15). Speech samples were collected from responses given to several tasks and spontaneous speech in some situations (talking about a nearby situation and talking about the child’s personal experiences). In various tasks and situations, the frequency of stuttering was lower when the linguistic complexity was simpler and the utterance length was shorter.