Hermann F.M. Peters – författare

The last five to ten years have shown a remarkable increase in research which tries to uncover the dynamics of speech motor processes behind fluent and dysfluent speech. This book presents a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of recent developments and future directions in theory and research in speech motor control and physiological mechanisms in stuttering. Leading authorities present and discuss the main theories of speech motor control in speech and stuttering, i.e. action theory, programming models, and the multilevel control model. The broad scope of recent developments in research in speech motor coordination using simultaneous measurements is described. New methods in recording and processing speech motor processes and the acoustical signal are presented in more detail (i.e. brain electrical mapping technique, X-ray micro beam pellet tracking technique, and procedures in acoustical analysis). Much attention is devoted to progress in methodological approaches by tutorial papers on the relationship between acoustical measures, physiological parameters and chapters on the methodological aspects of simultaneous measurements.The problems in studying young stutterers's speech production are also discussed at length.

The present book arose from a conference on Speech Motor Dynamics in Stuttering held at the University of Nijmegen in Nijmegen, the Netherlands from June 13-15, 1985. The conference was organized on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Department of Speech Pathology of the University Hospital. The topic selected for the conference and now developed within this book, Speech Motor Dynamics in Stuttering, was judged to be particularly timely and especially relevant to an emerging body of work on stuttering. For over ten years there had been no confer­ ences that brought together researchers who have worked on stuttering from perspectives stressing the dynamics of motor processes. Yet during that time major changes have occurred in research on stuttering which signify a growing level of scientific maturity within the problem area. This book attempts to character­ ize a number of major trends in research on speech motor processes in stuttering. There has been a lessening in the postulation of causes of stuttering in the form of global hypothesis which have tenuous ties to empi rical data. New ideas about speech motor processes in stuttering have been stimulated by researchers who have done productive work on more general issues of motor control. This book therefore directs our attention to a number of models of speech production which are relevant to stuttering.