Speech Dysfluencies in People with Down's Syndrome

Kurt Eggers and Chris De Bal

Most of the children with Down’s syndrome have speech and language disorders and show a higher frequency of speech dysfluencies. Depending on the study, prevalences as high as 77% for stuttering and/or cluttering are reported. The literature is somewhat ambiguous in labelling these dysfluencies: stuttering, cluttering, or as some authors suggest, an increased amount of normal dysfluencies. In this study the speech of 150 people with Down’s syndrome, within 3 different age categories (<12;11, 13y.-21;11, >22) will be assessed. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the dysfluencies will be performed. We will report on our preliminary findings of a possible link between language level, motor aspects and speech dysfluencies.