A Comprehensive Analysis of Speech Disfluencies in Autistic Young Adults and Control Young Adults: Group Differences in Typical, Stuttering-Like, and Atypical Disfluencies.

Researchers studied how 32 autistic young adults and 35 non-autistic young adults spoke when telling stories. They found that autistic young adults had much more difficulty with smooth speech, including more pauses, word repetitions, and revisions. About 1 in 4 autistic participants showed mild stuttering patterns. This suggests that speech difficulties are common in autism and should be assessed and supported by speech therapists.

This study compared speech disfluencies in 32 autistic young adults and 35 controls during narrative tasks about socially complex events. Researchers classified disfluencies into three categories: typical (filled pauses, revisions), stuttering-like (sound repetitions, blocks), and atypical (word-final prolongations, unusual insertions). Autistic participants showed significantly higher frequencies across all disfluency types, with approximately 25% demonstrating mild stuttering severity and 20% producing more than three stuttering-like disfluencies per 100 syllables. The findings highlight the need for comprehensive speech disfluency assessment in autism using wide-range classification systems to better understand communication challenges.

Speech-language pathologists should use comprehensive disfluency classification systems when assessing autistic individuals. Results suggest routine screening for stuttering-like behaviors may be warranted. Findings support developing targeted interventions for various disfluency types commonly observed in autism to improve overall communication effectiveness.

Small sample size limits generalizability. Study focused only on young adults, so findings may not apply to other age groups. The narrative task involved socially complex events which may have increased disfluencies. No information provided about autism severity levels or co-occurring conditions that might influence results.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of speech disfluencies in autistic young adults and controls by using a wide-range disfluency classification of typical disfluencies (TD; i.e., filled pauses, revisions, abandoned utterances, and multisyllable word and phrase repetitions), stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD; i.e., sound and syllable repetitions, monosyllable word repetitions, prolongations, blocks, and broken words), and atypical disfluencies (AD; i.e., word-final prolongations and repetitions and atypical insertions). Thirty-two autistic young adults and 35 controls completed a narrative telling task based on socially complex events. Frequencies of total disfluencies, TD, SLD, AD and stuttering severity were compared between groups. The overall frequency of disfluencies was significantly higher in the autistic group and significant between-group differences were found for all disfluency categories.

The autistic group produced significantly more revisions, filled pauses, and abandoned utterances, and each subtype of SLD and AD than the control group. In total, approximately every fourth autistic participants scored at least a very mild severity of stuttering, and every fifth produced more than three SLD per 100 syllables. Disfluent speech can be challenging for effective communication. This study revealed that the speech of autistic young adults was highly more disfluent than that of the controls.

The findings provide information on speech disfluency characteristics in autistic young adults and highlight the importance of evaluating speech disfluency with a wide-range disfluency classification in autistic persons in order to understand their role in overall communication. The results of this study offer tools for SLPs to evaluate and understand the nature of disfluencies in autistic persons.