Behavioral and cognitive-affective features of stuttering in preschool-age children: Regression and exploratory cluster analyses.
Ryan A Millager, Mary S Dietrich, Robin M Jones
PMID 37031644WHAT IT FOUND
In preschoolers who stutter, overt speech behaviors are highly intercorrelated, but child-reported negative attitudes often lack significant links to specific behavioral measures.
Cluster analysis identified a smaller subgroup with more severe behavioral and affective features.
Key findings
01Frequency of stuttered disfluencies showed strong positive associations with stuttering duration and repetitions, and inverse associations with non-stuttering disfluencies.
02While multivariate models were significant, no single overt stuttering behavior was a statistically significant predictor of child-reported communication attitudes or parent-reported reactions in the full models.
03Cluster analysis separated children into two groups, with the smaller cluster exhibiting more severe stuttering behaviors and more negative affective responses.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not correct for multiple comparisons, increasing the risk of false-positive findings. Data collection spanned 21 years, leading to missing data for newer measures like the TOCS and KiddyCAT in many participants. The TOCS is a caregiver-reported measure and may reflect parental anxiety rather than the child's actual experience. The cluster analysis showed substantial overlap between groups, so the clusters should not be viewed as distinct diagnostic phenotypes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a child's stuttering frequency predicts their emotional distress. The study found that overt behaviors and internal attitudes were not significantly linked in multivariate models, so clinicians must assess feelings directly. Also, the clusters represent statistical groupings with overlap, not distinct diagnostic types.