Gli aspetti psicolinguistici e fonetici della balbuzie: indici acustici e cinematici, con particolare riguardo all'età scolare

The various processing stages extending from the intention to communicate to the overt articulation are shortly presented following the psycholinguistic model of Levelt (W.J.M. Levelt, "Speaking: from intention to articulation", Cambridge, Mit Press, 1989), and the research findings in stutterers` behavior and possible theoretical explanations at that level are presented. Although stuttering is a multidimensional phenomenon made by sociocultural, psychological, physiological and genetic factors, one can say that in order to accomplish a causal function in stuttering, each of them must at the end act on the motor control processes of the speech apparatus. Psycholinguistics and Phonetics could give also some indications whether some developmental unbalancement among anatomo-physiological structures and functions, and among linguistic, cognitive and motor abilities is at the core of stuttering. Further, since the differences found between stutterer and nonstutterer adults could not be the direct manifestations of stuttering but the reactions of the subjects to stuttering, we must look for differences in the affected subjects before they develop facing reactions, that is, during the preschool years.