Gesture Production during Speech among People Who Stutter

Debora Freud, Ruth Ezrati-Vinacour and Uri Hadar

Viewing stuttering as a communicational disorder, led us to investigate gesture production by People Who Stutter (PWS). Adult PWS (8) and fluent speakers (7) were video-recorded during a storytelling task and filled out questionnaires regarding social and communicational attitudes. Contrary to previous research, no differences were found between groups as to gesture production. PWS produced one kind of gesture proportionally more during fluency than during stuttering. Correlations were found between some kinds of gestures and the speaker’s emotional status. Findings support cognitive approaches, relating gestures to speech production, and demonstrate a link between emotions and gestures, supporting communicative approaches.