Abstract
Clinicians commonly report difficulty determining whether the disfluencies produced
by their clients are indicative of stuttering or suggestive of something else, such
as cluttering, autism, language impairment, or second language learning. In our clinical
decision-making process, we identify features unique to specific speech and/or language
disorders. This identification enables differential diagnosis in most cases. But what
happens when features appear to overlap and, as a result, compromise our clinical
decision making? This article provides information to assist in the differential diagnosis
of stuttering, particularly as it pertains to the assessment of children who speak
more than one language. It explores similarities in the speech behaviors produced
by these speakers, contrasting them with stuttering behaviors in monolingual English
speakers.
Keywords
Stuttering - fluency disorder - assessment - differential diagnosis - bilingualism
