LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 25:4 April 2025
ISSN 1930-2940

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         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Measurement of Stuttering Severity-A Comparison between Subjective and Objective Methods

Dr Swapna Sebastian, Dr. Venkataraja U Aithal and
Dr. N. P. Nataraja

Abstract

Introduction

Stuttering is a communication disorder, characterized by repetition of sounds, syllables, or words; prolongation of sounds; and interruptions in speech known as blocks which may be accompanied by struggle behaviours, such as rapid eye blinks or tremors of the lips.

Methodology: This study investigated the correlation of 2 stuttering measurement tools: an objective measurement of different behaviours of stuttering assessed using a computer and the subjective severity assessment done by the clinician. The number of different stuttering behaviours and their duration were calculated using a computer. Three experienced speech pathologists rated stuttering severity by listening to the audio recording of reading and spontaneous speech samples of 10 stuttering and 10 nonstuttering participants.

Results: Results showed very high intra-judge and inter-judge agreement for both measures. There was a strong linear correlation between subjective stuttering severity assessment done by the judges and stuttering severity scores calculated by the computer. The finding of this study suggests that the two measures can be regarded as interchangeable. Hence the results of the current study can be used to develop an algorithm to measure severity assessment which will be more objective measure than the traditional perceptual evaluation by clinician.

I. Introduction

Stuttering is a fluency disorder affecting communication , characterized by repetition of sounds, syllables, or words; prolongation of sounds; and interruptions in speech known as blocks which may be accompanied by struggle behaviours, such as rapid eye blinks or tremors of the lips(1). The exact causes for stuttering are not precise.

Various measures of assessing the severity of stuttering are available. These are either (1) perceptual rating, where the clinician rates the severity of the behaviours according to a scale, or (2) counting instances of specific stuttering behaviours or measuring the duration of specific behaviours.

Subjective Perceptual rating scales have been widely used for overall estimation of the severity based on the perception of the clinician, for example Martin et al. (1988) proposed a scale with satisfactory intra-judge reliability and inter-judge reliability, which has a 9-point scale, where one is labelled "mild," and nine is labelled "severe." There are no descriptions of any symptoms (2).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr Swapna Sebastian
Corresponding Author
Professor (Audiology and Speech Pathology)
Department of Otorhinolaryngology
Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore
Tamilnadu, India-632004
swapnasanthoshchris@gmail.com

Dr. Venkataraja U Aithal
Professor at Manipal College of Health Professions
Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India
vrajaithal@manipal.edu

Dr. N. P. Nataraja
Professor (Retired)
Department of Speech Science
All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, Karnataka
npnataraja@gmail.com
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