TY - JOUR
T1 - Lexical diversity and lexical skills in children who stutter
AU - Luckman, Courtney
AU - Wagovich, Stacy A.
AU - Weber, Christine
AU - Brown, Barbara
AU - Chang, Soo Eun
AU - Hall, Nancy E.
AU - Bernstein Ratner, Nan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - Purpose: Numerous “small N” studies of language ability in children who stutter have produced differing conclusions. We combined test and spontaneous language data from a large cohort of children who stutter (CWS) and typically fluent peers, gathered from independent laboratories across the US, to appraise a variety of lexical measures. Method: Standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary test data and spontaneous language samples from 99 pairs of CWS (ages 25–100 months), and age-, gender-, and SES-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS) were compared. Language sample transcripts were analyzed with four measures of lexical diversity. Correlations between lexical diversity measures and expressive vocabulary scores were also calculated. Results: On standardized tests of both receptive and expressive vocabulary, there were significant differences between CWS and CWNS. In contrast, on spontaneous language measures of lexical diversity, CWS did not differ in their lexical diversity, across analyses, compared to CWNS. Three of the four lexical diversity analyses, MATTR, VocD, and NDW, were significantly correlated with each other. Conclusions: We were able to confirm prior findings of relative disadvantage on standardized vocabulary tests for a very large sample of well-matched CWS. However, spontaneous language measures of lexical diversity did not distinguish the groups. This relative weakness in CWS may emerge from task differences: CWS are free to encode their own spontaneous utterances but must comply with explicit lexical prompts in standardized testing situations.
AB - Purpose: Numerous “small N” studies of language ability in children who stutter have produced differing conclusions. We combined test and spontaneous language data from a large cohort of children who stutter (CWS) and typically fluent peers, gathered from independent laboratories across the US, to appraise a variety of lexical measures. Method: Standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary test data and spontaneous language samples from 99 pairs of CWS (ages 25–100 months), and age-, gender-, and SES-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS) were compared. Language sample transcripts were analyzed with four measures of lexical diversity. Correlations between lexical diversity measures and expressive vocabulary scores were also calculated. Results: On standardized tests of both receptive and expressive vocabulary, there were significant differences between CWS and CWNS. In contrast, on spontaneous language measures of lexical diversity, CWS did not differ in their lexical diversity, across analyses, compared to CWNS. Three of the four lexical diversity analyses, MATTR, VocD, and NDW, were significantly correlated with each other. Conclusions: We were able to confirm prior findings of relative disadvantage on standardized vocabulary tests for a very large sample of well-matched CWS. However, spontaneous language measures of lexical diversity did not distinguish the groups. This relative weakness in CWS may emerge from task differences: CWS are free to encode their own spontaneous utterances but must comply with explicit lexical prompts in standardized testing situations.
KW - Fluency
KW - Language
KW - Lexical diversity
KW - Stuttering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079125388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jfludis.2020.105747
DO - 10.1016/j.jfludis.2020.105747
M3 - Article
C2 - 32058092
AN - SCOPUS:85079125388
SN - 0094-730X
VL - 63
JO - Journal of Fluency Disorders
JF - Journal of Fluency Disorders
M1 - 105747
ER -