Differences in Disfluency Behavior Between Male and Female Nonstuttering Children

Abstract

Speech samples of 150 words were obtained from 92 first-grade children, 46 males and 46 females. Children’s Thematic Apperception Test pictures were employed to elicit verbalization. Occurrences of types of disfluencies were identified from taped recordings. No sex differences were found with regard to total number of disfluencies. Comparisons of incidence of specific types of disfluencies revealed that males exhibited a greater number of incomplete phrases than did females.