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1- Introduction
a) Which are the typical characteristics of fluency in four-year-old children? b) Which are the most frequent accidents? c) Presence or lack of evolution in some of them.
Hypothesis: Whether this discontinuity evolves or not might become an indicator of a discontinuity which does not belong to the normal fluency. Starkweather, C. W. (1988), studying the development of fluency in normal children, defines its characteristics. Following this author, we are going to consider the fluency in speech, as object of study, leaving sideways what refers to linguistic skills. Hall, N. and Burguess, S. (2000) emphasize the importance of carrying out studies of development of fluency, in children who are in process of acquisition of the language, that is to say pre - school children. This proposal turns out to be yet more important in our country, where we lack specific investigations of fluency, disfluency and its early detection. We also consider opportune to mention in this same investigative line, Yairi's studies, E. (1981). This author led the only longitudinal study of the continuity of speech in normal children. We decided to cut away our object of study and to analyze children of four years old. The motive of this trim is based on that four years imply a key age, so much for the development of the language, as for the development of the psychic structure of the children. It is the moment in which the children begin to devise stories, narrations and from the psychological point of view the constitution of the Id gets more complex. Finally, a reason that comes from our professional practice and that refers to the quantity of consultations that are made at this age as a beginning of disfluency. Narbonne, J. and Chevrie, Muller (1997) analyzing besides the neuropsychological and psychological processes that intervene in the verbal communication at this age, take into account the mechanical subsystems that permit the phono-articulation. The activity of these structures will depend on a motor central program according to the linguistic code learned. Stetson, H. (1928), supports that in a small child, the muscular tone of the palate and of the mandibulofacial musculature is deficient, which is demonstrated with a precarious control of the nasalization and of the regulation of the pressure intra - oral, in relationship with the phonation and vocalization. The respiratory capacity and the control of the air flow and of the subglottal pressure are deficient, therefore the length of the oral speeches is comparatively shorter and the speed of diction is slower than in adults. This produces a first asymmetric social interaction where the meanings and the first expressions are constructed. This contribution to the speech motor production in small child, attracted our attention since in the normal fluency at the age of four, we had proposed to describe the mistakes in the continuity of the speech, and among them to observe the hesitation and its evolution or not across the captures of samples of speech. Wexler and Mysak (1982) observed discontinuities in 36 fluid male children between 2 and 6 years. They found that certain type of discontinuities as the modification of phrase, interjections and repetition of words would be of linguistic base, whereas the hesitation, partial repetition of word and broken rhythm in the phonation were considered as a motor base discontinuity. It is necessary to mention that we have carried out a descriptive longitudinal design, this means that the objective that we have decided to get in our investigation has been to describe the variables that characterize the normal development of fluency and its discontinuities or accidents, throughout a period of time, which in this case we have decided that out of one year, in four year old children. The longitudinal study approach makes us possible to investigate the characteristics and transformations that appear throughout the whole etaria band. With this aim we carried out a first series of data compilation in two opportunities done with a difference of two months between them. Subsequently a second series was carried out after five months, which contemplated two captures with an interval of two months. The selected sample is of the intentional type, that is to say, not at chance and neither representative, by which the data cannot be generalized. It consists of six children of four years, which go to kindergarten in Capital Federal (Buenos Aires). Once having finished the compilation of information, we obtained twenty-four video- recorded interviews, in which we analyze the statements of every child.
3.1- Participants. Six four year old children. Three Speech Pathologists obtained the samples in four different opportunities throughout a year. The observation began with eight children, two of them suspended the concurrence; the children were tested in the kindergarten environment, with a previous informative chat and authorization of the parents and teachers.
3.2- Stimulus. In each one of the four meetings an animal family was shown to every child –turtles, horses, crocodiles and monkeys. The oral task presented was: - What do you think - What are they doing?
3.3- Procedure Sample obtainment and data recording In relationship with the compilation of data an individual open interview was made to every child and a fixed stimulus was used, a toy animal family, being the type of animal changed in every new capture. The reason for this decision was of maintaining a part of the stimulus permanent, in order that it gave rise to the same type of statement and besides changing it to avoid the boredom, which affects its quality. The selection of toys was thought depending on its projective characteristics, that is to say that could unite to contents near to his childlike life and that were not prominent figures of story or of movie that could organize a priori a playful modality. There were used as register instruments, a video camera and a type recorder, for the purpose of obtaining a double register, visual and auditory. The compilation was at the expense of two investigators who were trained to generate the situation of interview with the children as spontaneous as possible, trying to avoid the sensations of inhibition and shame that were affecting directly the responses about the material. The stimulus was shown in four different opportunities and the samples were recorded through individual tapes. Twenty-four samples of speech of the six children were collected, they were transcribed based on visual and audible recording and an analytical register of fluency was obtained. The different characteristics of the mistakes in the continuity were achieved in every capture and every child. This data was overturned in a categorization grid of the accidents of the normal fluency.
The category hesitation is the one observed more frequently and also which fluctuates more in all the children. The continuity and discontinuity remained stable throughout all the categories during the observed period and there was no evolution of discontinuity to another fluency normal mistakes. The observation of normal fluency gave us data about continuity as a stable characteristic of speech and lets us describe the presence of discontinuity with an also stable fluctuation at the age of four. According to the questions that we had stated, we have been able to establish: * The characteristics of fluency at the age of four. * The mistakes in the continuity more frequent in the continuity. * The stable fluctuation of the discontinuity. According to Starkweather, from the age of two years and a half onwards, fluency can be defined as the aptitude to maintain the comfort, the continuity and an appropriate speed. In relationship with speech continuity, which was the aim of observation of this investigation we conclude that hesitation would be a stable fluctuation category and presumably produced by vacillation in the speech motor production at four years old. We may conclude fluency at the age of four is characterized by a series of normal discontinuities of stable fluctuation, being hesitation one of the most frequently found. As the sample and the time of observation were reduced this contribution must be taken as a descriptive analysis only, without validity of conclusive results.
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