Daichi Iimura

University of Tsukuba

Background Cluttering is a speech disorder distinct from stuttering. Despite this distinction, there is no established method to clearly differentiate the two disorders. This study aimed to use objective criteria to differentiate cluttering from stuttering in Japanese speakers. Methods Participants were 32 consecutive native-Japanese speakers who...

Introduction: Stuttering is influenced by different linguistic factors, such as sentence- and word-level factors. However, its developmental differences remain unclear. Thus, this study examined the developmental differences in the linguistic factors associated with stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) among Japanese preschool and school-aged childre...

To enhance the level of certainty in clinical trials for stuttering, we examined the descriptions of implementation quality in clinical trials conducted in Japan. We searched for articles published from 1980 to 2022, written in Japanese, and reporting clinical trials conducted with school-aged children who stutter. We utilized the CiNii and Japan M...

This study uses a dual-task experiment and investigates the varied responses of people who stutter (PWS) to delayed auditory feedback (DAF). We engaged PWS (N = 10) in a reading-aloud task under DAF while performing simple reaction tasks to tactile and auditory stimuli concurrently. We measured their cerebral blood flow using near-infrared spectros...

Purpose Developmental stuttering is a fluency disorder that may be caused by neurological, genetic, or familial factors. However, a general perception that stuttering is caused by psychological problems could lead to negative attitudes toward stuttering, causing prejudice or discrimination against people who stutter (PWS). Thus, our study aimed to...

This scoping review examined clinical reports for selective mutism (SM) in Japan, the progress of literature, participants' demographic characteristics, and achievements of interventions. Multiple online databases were used to identify articles published before May 2021; a total of 175 articles and 218 participants were selected. The majority of ar...

Many studies have reported that stuttering self-help/support groups have a positive psychological effect on people who stutter (PWS). This systematic review aims to identify and synthesize the published research articles that quantitatively investigate, with a control condition, the influence of the self-help/support group experience on PWS. The li...

The usefulness of various treatment programs for people who stutter has been highlighted recently. In implementing evidence-based clinical practice, the quality of the studies extracted during systematic reviews that serve as guidelines for treatment programs should be assessed, and, as clinical studies may involve some risk of biases, the reliabil...

The purpose of the present study was to verify the usefulness of a Japanese version of the Erickson S-24, a questionnaire that measures communication attitudes, for assessing stuttering. The study investigated the standardized S-24 scores for people who do not stutter, and also collected scores from previous studies for people who stutter and those...

Purpose This study aims to develop a short Japanese version of the Self-Stigma of Stuttering Scale (4 S), which assesses the self-stigma of adults who stutter (AWS) in a self-completed form, and evaluate its psychometric properties and reliability and validity. Methods After translating the original 4 S scale into Japanese (4S-J) through a forward...

A cognitive-behavioral approach centered on speech rate control was used to intervene with a 10-year-old boy with cluttering symptoms. In the cognitive-behavioral approach, instruction focuses first on self-monitoring skills, and then moves on to instruction in speaking with reduced speech rate. After 6 months of intervention, the total frequency o...

Purpose This study aimed to predict special educational needs in children who stutter (CWS) using a screening test for three neurodevelopmental disorders (specific learning disorder [SLD], attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], and autism spectrum disorder [ASD]). While most previous studies have been conducted by speech-language patholog...

Purpose This systematic review identified and synthesized published research articles, written in Japanese, on the clinical effectiveness of a broad range of nonpharmacological interventions for school-age children who stutter. Method A systematic review of Japanese literature published between January 1, 1980, and July 7, 2020, reporting interven...

This study aimed to investigate the linguistic factors involved in stuttering among Japanese-speaking preschool children. The participants included 10 Japanese children who stutter, with a mean age of 5 years and 9 months. Speech samples comprised spontaneous conversations of the participants with their parents for about 20 minutes. We compared the...

The effectiveness of using a multidimensional and comprehensive approach in the treatment of children who stutter has been reported, but most reports have focused on practices in hospitals and research institutions. There have been only a few case reports on children who stutter who have undergone treatment in special education classes, and there i...

The purpose of the study is to synthesize the published research articles about the predictors of performance in the national examination of therapy licensure in Japan. A systematic review of the literature was carried out on November 14, 2020. We searched for articles containing the words "national examination" and "point" or "performance" or "sco...

We aimed to investigate meaning expansion from the perception of unknown shapes-that is, nonobjects-among 82 Japanese university students and compare the results with a previous American study. Participants were shown 10 nonobjects and were required to indicate what the unknown shape looked like. The responses were grouped into categories, and the...

Purpose In this study, we investigated the classification of cluttering by assessing speech based on the ratio of disfluencies (RDF) and attempted to identify cluttering and cluttering–stuttering by classifying disfluencies according to previous studies and the Japanese Standardized Test for Stuttering. We further investigated the factors that cont...

Introduction It is classically known that speech disfluencies occur under delayed auditory feedback (DAF) among adults who do not stutter (AWNS) [1]. Although the underlying mechanisms of disfluent speech by DAF remain unclear, one potential explanation is the involvement of auditory attention toward their delayed voice [2,3]. Ishida et al. [3] con...

Purpose: Children who stutter (CWS) face communication difficulties in school activities and at home. Although the importance of receiving support from their surroundings has been documented, few studies have investigated potential requests of CWS from their surroundings. This study aimed to elucidate such requests. Method: A total of 43 school-ag...

Purpose: Negative attitudes toward stuttering by people in their work roles have been previously reported. These attitudes could differ depending on whether or not someone knows a person or has been in contact with a person who stutters. This study aimed to elucidate public attitudes toward people who stutter at work. Methods: A web-based questionn...

Introduction: Stuttering is a fluency disorder that involves problems with fluency and the flow of speech. In previous research, results have emerged where the types of disfluency in bilingual PWS and monolingual PWS were different. There has, however, been no research into the language characteristics and psychological characteristics of Japanese-...

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) leads to nonfluent speech where the voice of a speaker is heard after a delay. Previous studies suggested the involvement of attention to auditory feedback in speech disfluency. To date, there are no studies that have revealed the relationship between attention and nonfluent speech by controlling the attention alloca...

Stuttering is a fluency disorder, partially alleviated during altered auditory feedback, suggesting abnormal sensorimotor integration in adults who stutter (AWS). As weighting of multiple integrating-information sources would be decided based on their reliabilities, the use of external (auditory feedback) and internal information (prediction of sen...

This study aimed to clarify 1) the proportion of nurses who stutter (NWS); 2) knowledge regarding stuttering on the part of nurses who do not stutter (NWNS), and their perceptions and attitudes regarding people who stutter (PWS); and 3) what NWS think about their difficulties on the job and the work environment, and to identify ways of improving th...

As stuttering influences individuals’ job or school performances，speech-language-hearing therapists or speech-language-hearing therapist students who stutter face several challenges. For these individuals, peer-support from their colleagues is a means of support. We assessed the importance of peer support in this study. Sixteen participants who stu...

The period of employment is an important phase in one’s life. Although earlier research studies reported job difficulties among adults who stutter, there are few studies in Japan. I performed three studies (Iimura, 2015, 2016, 2017; all peer-reviewed papers in Japanese), and reveal some significant findings; negative attitude toward their job, the...

We investigated the needs of children who stutter (CWS) and those of their parents regarding the CWS’s environment (e.g., elementary school or home). Twenty-seven CWS and their parents completed survey questionnaires about their needs and requests for accommodation. Results show that CWS have trouble speaking to their friends, families, and teacher...

Domo-Work (Specified Nonprofit Corporation) is the only organization in Japan that is mainly supporting the employment of people who stutter (PWS). Most PWS have experienced in difficulty in their jobs and developed a negative attitude. This corporation was established in 2014 and developed various support activities, such as lectures that improve...

Many people who stutter (PWS) have difficulties in securing a job or in working. We describe the details of two cases in which we provided support for PWS, and we discuss the future implications.

In Japan, a degree of activity of self-help group of stuttering may differ from region to region. It would be a problem that must be overcome to do a peer-support or social-support toward people who stutter equally all over the country. To elucidate actual conditions, we investigated a questionnaire study to nine local group of “We-stutt Project.”...

Some people who stutter want to become speech-language-hearing therapists (SLHT), motivated by their stuttering. However, their speaking difficulties could be an obstacle when working as an SLHT or during SLHT education. We investigated supports and reasonable accommodations needed by students who stutter versus those offered by SLHT schools throug...

Purpose: To determine laypeople's knowledge and awareness of stuttering in Japan. Methods: A total of 303 respondents, recruited by street sampling, completed a questionnaire assessing the prevalence, onset, gender distribution, occurrence in different races, cause, treatment, association with intelligence, and hereditariness of stuttering. The...

Children who stutter (CWS) face many difficulties and need environmental support in school or home activities. However, few studies have investigated the needs of CWS within the context of their environment. The present study aimed to elucidate the needs and requests for accommodation of CWS. Twenty-five CWS completed a free-description questionnai...

Although romantic relationships are of great importance in a person’s life, there are few studies that investigate the role of these relationships in the lives of people who stutter (PWS). Through the use of a semi-structured interview, we explored the views of eleven PWS on romantic relationships. Our findings suggest that while many participants...

Students who stutter face a number of challenges while enrolled in education programs for speech-language-hearing therapists (SLHT), and they need support and consideration for their speaking difficulties. In this study, we conducted a survey by questionnaire to identify and investigate issues that people who stutter face during their SLHT educatio...

Previous studies have indicated that stuttering influences the work life of adults who stutter (AWS), and reasonable accommodations for AWS in the workplace are needed. However, few studies have examined specific, reasonable accommodations for AWS. We conducted a questionnaire on the work life and reasonable accommodations of 182 AWS. Results showe...

Previous studies have indicated that stuttering influences the work life of adults who stutter (AWS). However, few studies have examined the situation in Japan. We conducted a questionnaire survey on the work life of 55 AWS. Results showed that for most of the AWS, stuttering affected job choice, and after getting their job, they encountered work d...

People who stutter (PWS) presumably pay excessive attention to monitoring their speech, possibly exacerbating speech fluency. Using a reading comprehension task, we investigated whether or not PWS devote excessive attention to their speech. Methods Eleven PWS and 11 people who do not stutter (PNS) read passages in silent and oral reading conditions...