Disfluency: An interruption of speech- such as a repetition, hesitancy, or prolongation of sound- that may occur in both typically develop ing individuals and those who stutter
Normal disfluency: An interrupt io n of speech in a typically developing individual
Fluency: The effortless flow of speech
Repetition: A sound, syllable, or single-syllableword that is repeated several times. The speaker is apparently “stuck”
on that sound and continues repeating it until the following sound can be produced
Prolongation: A stutter in which sound or air flow
continues but movement of the articulators isstopped
Block: A stutter that isan inappropriatestoppage of the flow of air or voice and often the movement of articulators as well
Core behavior: The basic speech behavior of stuttering repetition, prolongation, and block
Secondary behavior: A speaker’s reactions to hisor her repetitions, prolongations,and blocks in an attempt to end them quickly or avoid them altogether. Such reactions may begin as random struggle but soon turn into well-learned patterns. Secondary behaviors can bedivided into two broad classes: escape a11d avoidance behaviors
Escape behavior: A speaker’s attempts to terminate a stutter and finish the word. This occurs when the speaker is already in a moment of stuttering
Avoidance behavior: A speaker ‘s attempt to prevent stuttering when he or she anticipates stuttering on a word or in a situation. Word-basedavoidances are commonly interjections of extra sounds, like “uh;’said before the word on which stuttering ise>..-pected
Attitude: A feeling that has become a pervasive part of a person’s beliefs
Heterogeneity : Differences among various types of a disorder Developmental stuttering: A term used to denote the most common form of stuttering that develops during childhood
(in contrast to stuttering tbat develops in response to a neurological eventor trauma or emotional stress)
Prevalence: A term used to indicate how widespread a disorder is
Incidence: An index of how many people have stuttered at
some time in their lives
Anticipation: An individual’s ability to predict on which words or sounds he or she will stutter
Consistency: The tendency for speakers to stutter on the same words when reading a passage several times
Adaptation: The tendency for speakers to stutter less and less (up to a point) when repeatedly reading a passage
