ScienceDirect: Top 25 Articles from Journal of Fluency Disorders, October to December, 2015

You can access the above-noted list of articles – along with abstracts – here.

It was from this field of research that I developed my interest in evidence-based practice.

Close to thirty years ago, I found an effective way to deal with a fluency disorder that affects about five percent of children during the years when they are acquiring language, and about one percent of adults, in countries around the world.

Here’s an abstract from one of the articles:

Epidemiology of stuttering

Journal of Fluency Disorders
Volume 38, Issue 2, June 2013, Pages 66–87

Epidemiology of stuttering: 21st century advances

Abstract

Epidemiological advances in stuttering during the current century are reviewed within the perspectives of past knowledge. The review is organized in six sections: (a) onset, (b) incidence, (c) prevalence, (d) developmental paths, (e) genetics and (f) subtypes. It is concluded that: (1) most of the risk for stuttering onset is over by age 5, earlier than has been previously thought, with a male-to-female ratio near onset smaller than what has been thought, (2) there are indications that the lifespan incidence in the general population may be higher than the 5% commonly cited in past work, (3) the average prevalence over the lifespan may be lower than the commonly held 1%, (4) the effects of race, ethnicity, culture, bilingualism, and socioeconomic status on the incidence/prevalence of stuttering remain uncertain, (5) longitudinal, as well as incidence and prevalence studies support high levels of natural recovery from stuttering, (6) advances in biological genetic research have brought within reach the identification of candidate genes that contribute to stuttering in the population at large, (7) subtype-differentiation has attracted growing interest, with most of the accumulated evidence supporting a distinction between persistent and recovered subtypes.

Educational objectives: Readers will be exposed to a summary presentation of the most recent data concerning basic epidemiological factors in stuttering. Most of these factors also pertain to children’s risks for experiencing stuttering onset, as well as risks for persistency. The article also aims to increase awareness of the implications of the information to research, and professional preparation that meets the epidemiology of the disorder.

Highlights

► Onset of stuttering. ► Incidence and prevalence. ► Developmental paths. ► Genetic of stuttering. ► Subtypes of stuttering.

Keywords

Stuttering; Epidemiology; Incidence-prevalence; Persistency-recovery; Subtypes; Genetics

Corresponding author at: University of Illinois, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, 901 6th Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States. Tel.: +1 217 621 2137; fax: +1 217 244 2235.

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ehud Yairi (B.A., Tel Aviv University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Iowa), has contributed extensively to the research literature on stuttering with a special focus on the various aspects of the onset, development, and genetics of stuttering. He authored many scientific articles as well as two books: Early Childhood Stuttering (2005; with N. Ambrose), and Stuttering: Foundations and Clinical Applications (2010; with C. Seery).

Nicoline G. Ambrose received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Her research centers on the etiology, onset and early development of stuttering, with particular reference to genetic factors underlying possible subtypes of stuttering.