October 13, 2006

Study seeks children, ages 4 and 5, who stutter

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University speech and language researchers are looking for 4- and 5-year-olds who stutter to participate in a study that is evaluating the differences between young children who stutter and those who grow out of stuttering.

Isabella Garcia, Barbara Brown
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This longitudinal study will follow children for at least three years and will be conducted by professors Anne Smith and Christine Weber-Fox. Children who participate will receive a free assessment of their speech, language and hearing skills, and the families of eligible children will receive $100 per year for participating in testing sessions. Families who live more than 60 miles from Purdue will be paid $200 per year.

To be considered for this study, children must be native speakers of English, have hearing within the normal range, display stuttered speech and have no cognitive or neurological difficulties. For information, contact Barbara Brown, project coordinator, at (765) 496-6403, toll-free at (866) 360-0051, or brownb@purdue.edu. Testing will take place in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences in Heavilon Hall.

The researchers' focus is on the physiological aspects of language, including how children's speech movements are coordinated and how their brains process speech and other auditory signals.

"The tasks are child-friendly and include watching videos and repeating funny sentences," Brown says. "The studies also involve placing some plastic disks, which are physiological sensors, on the skin or scalp while the child is engaged in speech and nonspeech tasks."

The Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences is housed in the College of Liberal Arts.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Sources: Barbara Brown, (765) 496-6403, brownb@purdue.edu

Anne Smith, (765) 494-3788, asmith@purdue.edu

Christine Weber-Fox, (765) 494-3819, weberfox@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

PHOTO CAPTION:
Four-year-old Isabella Garcia, along with Barbara Brown, a speech and language pathologist, demonstrate how a child participates in the stuttering study by the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. A child's brain waves are recorded while she or he watches a video with animated penguins. The penguin, known as Pingu, and his animal friends pronounce words incorrectly or use inconsistent grammar. For instance, children hear that Pingu likes to eat a chair, but they watch the penguin eat a fish. The information that professors Anne Smith and Christine Weber-Fox are collecting will help answer questions about stuttering in young children. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)

A publication-quality photo is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2006/weber-fox-stuttering2.jpg

 

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