Persistent developmental stuttering: fluency assessment pre- and post-treatment

Purpose : to compare the fluency of children who stutter as to the percentage of stuttered syllables, percentage of speech disruption, flow of syllables and word per minute and severity of stuttering in pre and post-therapeutic program. Method : 10 children, who stutter, aged from 6.0 to 11.11 years old, being 9 males and 1 female, from the Laboratório de Estudos da Fluência. All the participants underwent the following procedures: (a) initial assessment of fluency; (b) development of the therapeutic process, and (c) reassessment of fluency. Results : regarding the assessment post-treatment, there was a significant improvement in the fluency profile, because most of the analyzed measures (speech disruption, frequency of stuttered syllables, flow of syllables per minute and severity of stuttering) showed statically significant differences. The findings indicate that there was a quantitative reduction in the disruption in the flow of speech, which causes an increase in flow of syllables per minute, and also a decrease of the severity of stuttering. These results confirm the therapeutic efficacy of the applied therapy program. Conclusion : the results can assist the phonoaudiologist, in the therapy, both in the diagnostic assessment and in the control of therapeutic efficacy.