Simultaneously Treating Stuttering and Disordered Phonology in Children

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe treatment designed to simultaneously treat disordered phonology and stuttering in children who exhibit both disorders and to compare changes in stuttering that result from this treatment to changes observed in treatment designed for children who exhibit stuttering but not disordered phonology. Subjects were eight monolingual, English-speaking children: 4 boys who exhibited both stuttering and disordered phonology (mean age=69.7 months) and who participated in a stuttering-phonology (SP) treatment group, as well as 3 boys and 1 girl who exhibited only stuttering (mean age=71.5 months) and who participated in a stuttering (S) treatment group. Both treatment groups met weekly in 1-hour group treatment sessions for one calendar year. Results indicate that stuttering behavior changed appreciably for 2 of the children in the SP treatment group and for 3 children in the S group. In addition, 3 of the children in the SP group made appreciable changes in their phonological processes. Findings are taken to suggest that simultaneously treating childhood stuttering and disordered phonology is both feasible and effective, but there remains a need for further refinement in the methods used to treat the two disorders when they co-occur in children.