Speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls
Thesis event information
Date and time of the thesis defence
Topic of the dissertation
Speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls
Doctoral candidate
Master of Arts Veera Pirinen
Faculty and unit
University of Oulu Graduate School, Faculty of Humanities, Research Unit of Logopedics
Subject of study
Logopedics
Opponent
Professor Kathleen Scaler Scott, Misericordia University
Custos
Docent Soile Loukusa, University of Oulu
Autistic young adults produced more typical, stuttering-like, and atypical disfluencies than controls
Veera Pirinen’s doctoral dissertation indicates that speech disfluencies are more common in the speech of autistic young adults than in controls. Pirinen’s dissertation is one of the first to systematically evaluate disfluencies in the speech of autistic young adults using a wide-range disfluency categorization of typical, stuttering-like, and atypical disfluencies. In addition, the study evaluated stuttering severity and possible contributing factors associated with disfluencies.
Speech production is a complex result of the well-coordinated interaction of multiple different linguistic, cognitive, and motor processes related to speech planning and production. Spontaneous speech is rarely perfectly fluent. Disruptions in the speech production processes can manifest as disfluencies, which are associated with both typical and stuttered speech.
Thirty-two autistic young adults and 35 controls participated in this study. Speech disfluencies were analyzed from narrative speech samples based on events shown in video clips. The results showed that the autistic participants, especially males, produced significantly more typical, stuttering-like, and atypical disfluencies in their speech than the controls. The autistic participants also received significantly higher scores on a test that measures stuttering severity. Wide individual variation in the production of disfluencies was found within both groups. Connections were found between disfluencies and sex, general cognitive functioning, perceptual reasoning, linguistic complexity of the utterances, and speaking-related physiological reactivity. However, the connections appeared differently among the groups.
The findings of this study increase our understanding of typical and atypical speech disfluency characteristics among autistic persons, as well as the possible contributing factors associated with disfluencies. The study shows that when evaluating speech disfluency, it is important to use a wide-range disfluency classification to get a better overall view of the speech characteristics. The results also suggest that stuttering seems to be more prevalent in autistic adults when compared to the general adult population.
Speech production is a complex result of the well-coordinated interaction of multiple different linguistic, cognitive, and motor processes related to speech planning and production. Spontaneous speech is rarely perfectly fluent. Disruptions in the speech production processes can manifest as disfluencies, which are associated with both typical and stuttered speech.
Thirty-two autistic young adults and 35 controls participated in this study. Speech disfluencies were analyzed from narrative speech samples based on events shown in video clips. The results showed that the autistic participants, especially males, produced significantly more typical, stuttering-like, and atypical disfluencies in their speech than the controls. The autistic participants also received significantly higher scores on a test that measures stuttering severity. Wide individual variation in the production of disfluencies was found within both groups. Connections were found between disfluencies and sex, general cognitive functioning, perceptual reasoning, linguistic complexity of the utterances, and speaking-related physiological reactivity. However, the connections appeared differently among the groups.
The findings of this study increase our understanding of typical and atypical speech disfluency characteristics among autistic persons, as well as the possible contributing factors associated with disfluencies. The study shows that when evaluating speech disfluency, it is important to use a wide-range disfluency classification to get a better overall view of the speech characteristics. The results also suggest that stuttering seems to be more prevalent in autistic adults when compared to the general adult population.
Last updated: 1.10.2024