Definition
"This term describes normal developmental periods when a child shows occasional repetitions, revisions, and hesitations but tends to outgrow them."
Answer: Normal Nonfluency
Explanation: Expected in preschoolers; variable, no marked tension/secondary behaviors, decreases with age.
"Frequent whole-word or phrase repetitions in young children with easy, relaxed speech are most consistent with this."
Answer: Normal Non-fluency
Explanation: Often whole-word repetitions like "I-I-I want" with easy flow.
"Typical onset window (age range) for developmental stuttering."
Answer: 2–5 years (early childhood)
Explanation: Most developmental stuttering begins during this preschool period.
"A key assessment sign that differentiates neurogenic stuttering: dysfluencies occur across all speech tasks without improvement when repeating."
Answer: Lack of adaptation effect / task invariance
Explanation: Unlike developmental stuttering, neurogenic stuttering often does not show adaptation across repeated readings.
"This disorder is characterized by involuntary repetitions, prolongations, and blocks that often start in early childhood."
Answer: Developmental (Typical) Stuttering
Explanation: Onset typically 2–5 years, variable severity, often includes secondary behaviors and awareness.
"Frequent prolongations and tense blocks accompanied by facial tension and secondary behaviors indicate this diagnosis."
Answer: Developmental (Typical) Stuttering
Explanation: Tension, prolongations, and secondary behaviors point to stuttering disorder.
"A sudden onset of stuttering following a closed-head injury or stroke is most consistent with which type?"
Answer: Neurogenic Stuttering
Explanation: Correlation with neurological event; onset is abrupt
"An assessment finding suggesting cluttering rather than stuttering: speech rate is rapid and syllables get omitted, reducing intelligibility."
Answer: Rapid/irregular rate with omitted syllables and collapsed syllables
Explanation: Cluttering has rate and articulation irregularities, not classic blocks/repetitions.
"A fluency disorder caused by acquired neurological insult (e.g., stroke, TBI) with sudden onset of dysfluencies across contexts and no typical preschool history."
Answer: Neurogenic Stuttering
Explanation: Dysfluencies often on function and content words, less adaptation effect, few or no secondary behaviors.
"If dysfluencies occur equally on content and function words and are similar across speech tasks (reading, conversation), think this."
Answer: Neurogenic Stuttering
Explanation: Neurogenic stuttering shows less variability and is task-consistent.
"Onset in adolescence/adulthood without neurological injury and appearing after a significant psychological stressor suggests this type."
Answer: Psychogenic Stuttering
Explanation: Consider psychogenic when onset linked to psychological event and no neuro lesion.
"During assessment, if the speaker shows little to no secondary behaviors or struggle despite frequent dysfluencies, consider this diagnosis."
Answer: Neurogenic Stuttering (or early psychogenic—use clinical context)
Explanation: Neurogenic stuttering often lacks learned avoidance/secondary behaviors seen in developmental stuttering.
"A rare fluency disturbance that appears to follow psychological trauma, with sudden onset, variable linguistics patterns, and often prominent emotional/psychological features."
Answer: Psychogenic Stuttering
Explanation: May have sudden onset linked to stress/psychopathology, odd patterns, prominent affect, inconsistent across tasks.
"Speech with rapid rate, collapsing of syllables, and irregular pauses leading to reduced intelligibility suggests this."
Answer: Cluttering
Explanation: Cluttering affects rate and organization; disfluencies are secondary.
"This condition often has a developmental history of language formulation or motor planning problems and may not appear until school age when language demands increase."
Answer: Cluttering
Explanation: Cluttering often linked to language formulation deficits and becomes apparent as demands
"A strong indicator of psychogenic stuttering on assessment: inconsistent dysfluency patterns with sudden onset and pronounced emotional response not proportional to speech impairment."
Answer: Inconsistency and prominent affect/psychological signs
Explanation: Psychogenic stuttering often shows dramatic and inconsistent features along with psychological history.
"A disorder of speech-rate, prosody, and articulation often co-occurring with cluttered, rapid, and disorganized language rather than classic repetitions or blocks."
Answer: Cluttering
Explanation: Characterized by rapid/irregular speech rate, reduced intelligibility, language disorganization, typically few struggle behaviors
"In this condition, fluency may dramatically improve with distraction or when speaking to a different listener, and symptoms can show sudden shifts."
Answer: Psychogenic Stuttering
Explanation: Psychogenic features may be inconsistent and influenced by attention, emotion, and context
"A child who had a typical preschool nonfluency but then gradually develops tension, secondary behaviors, and increased frequency into school-age is likely evolving to:"
Answer: Developmental (Typical) Stuttering (progressive/persistent stuttering)
Explanation: Progression from normal nonfluency to persistent developmental stuttering.
"What two assessment approaches help differentiate developmental stuttering from psychogenic stuttering?"
Answer: Detailed case history (onset/context) and observation across tasks including automatic speech, singing, and reading/listening tasks
Explanation: Psychogenic often shows marked inconsistency; comparing tasks reveals patterns.