Human Research Coordination

Children and adults who stutter have been shown to exhibit more variable and inaccurate movement patterns on rhythmic tapping and slower responses on motor-speech synchronization tasks. Interestingly, there is a positive correlation between stuttering severity and task performance. Here, we ask how impaired rhythm abilities in stuttering may affect speech processing and shape speech production. To this effect, we will record electroencephalography (EEG), while participants listen to rhythmic tones and syllables. Further, participants will be ask to produce words together with a beat and read a short text passage. We hope to identify potential differences between people who do and do not stutter in terms of how rhythmic information is attended to and encoded by the brain. Speech production data will allow us to explore the link between rhythm representations at the neural level and actual speech performance.

Inclusion Criteria:
Children who stutter between ages 6 and 12
Adults who stutter between ages 18 and 65

Exclusion Criteria:
No history of neurological or hearing impairment
No speech-language disorders beyond stuttering

Participants may contact the lab directly by emailing stutteringproject@udel.edu or janinab@udel.edu

Alternatively, potential participants may sign up via our lab website: https://www.delawarestutteringproject.com/sign-up-for-research/