CHARACTERISTICS OF VOICE IN STUTTERING CHILDREN

Introduction: The purpose of this research was to establish voice acoustic characteristics in stuttering children with mild and severe stuttering and relationship between degree of stuttering and characteristics of voice in children. Methods: Sample consisted of two subsamples of male subjects (subsample of subjects with mild stuttering and subsample of subjects with severe stuttering) aged 7 to 10,5. Control group of subjects consisted of 46 fluent speakers, matched by age and sex with experimenal group. This research was conducted in twenty primary schools in Tuzla Canton among children attending grades 1 to 4. Results: Results of this research showed that subjects with severe stuttering had more expressed short frequency variations and variations of amplitude in the vocal tone. Factor analysis revealed four significant factors: factor of frequency variation, phonation factor, factor of aerodynamic phonation characteristics and intensity variation factor. Results of one-way factor analysis of variance between examined groups in factors of voice acoustic characteristics showed that factor 4 contributed the most to differentiation of groups. This factor was created from variables describing variation of amplitude in the vocal tone. Examination of correlation between four factors revealed statistically significant correlation between factor of frequency variation and intensity variation factor. Results of canonic analysis showed that variables of stuttering intesity correlated significantly with variable intensity variation. Results of this study also showed that acoustic analysis of voice in stuttering children might be useful for indepth analyses of stuttering manifestations. Conclusions: Results of this study might serve as incentive for furthter studies of different aspects of acoustic and physiologic phonation characteristics in stuttering children.