encies. As the disorder progresses, the dysfluencies become more frequent and interfering,
occurring on the most meaningful words or phr ases in the utterance. As the child becomes
aware of the speech difficulty, he or she may develop mechanisms for avoiding the dys-
fluencies and emotional responses, including avoidance of public speaking and use of
short and simple utterances. Longitudinal research shows that 65%–85% of children re-