STUTTERING: TIMING COMPARISON BETWEEN A STUTTERER AND A FLUENT SPEAKER

ABSTRACT

The main objective of the project titled “STUTTERING: TIMING COMPARISON BETWEEN A STUTTERER AND A FLUENT SPEAKER” is to carry out comparative study on the speech/word timeframe between a stutterer and a fluent speaker. Stuttering as a speech/fluency disorder is the main focus of the study. The aim of study is to examine stuttering as a speech disorder and analyzing the timing difference between a stuttered speech and a fluent speech. The method of data collection was interview, a stutterer was interviewed and asked to pronounce 100 words from the Ibadan 400 words and the informant was recorded. Every word was carefully listened to and observations were noted. A fluent speaker was also asked to pronounce same 100 words from the Ibadan 400 words and a stopwatch was set to record the time difference between the stuttered words and the fluent words. In the method of analyzing the data, the stopwatch was set at 1 centiseconds = 1seconds for every word and it was noticed that some words pronounced by the stutterer were stressed at the first syllables taking it a longer time to be pronounced. In some cases, some words were monosyllabic and there was repetition and prolongation. Some findings made during the cause of interview stated that words with more than one syllable takes longer time to pronounce. In pronouncing two and more syllable words, the first syllable is often repeated. In pronouncing compound words, there is usually an involuntary pause/gasp for air between the first and second words. 9 With all the observations and findings of the project, it is recommended that more research should be done by specialist in the area of psychology to professionally guide speech/language therapists and pathologists in helping/ treating stutterers.