La balbuzie. Relazioni tra fattori linguistici e motorii

In this paper are exposed the most formal and convincing applications of some psycholinguistic models of language production to the study of stuttering and are also discussed the motivations behind these models. Particularly, it is highlighted some basic limitations that these proposals have in common and which are due to the following factors. First, the concept that the stutterer's disfluencies and those of the normal speaker share the same linguistic nature. Second, the traditional identification of verbal fluency through the consideration of only one single aspect such as the "continuity" of the speech assessed from a perceptive stand point. Finally, a certain preclusion towards alternative explanations based on the aspects of motor system. However, in the last 15 years many theoretical hypotheses about motoric disorders have been elaborated, and it has been recently claimed that the linguistic "loci" of stuttering can also be explained from a motoric perspective. Moreover, there is evidence for stating that the concomitant sollecitations caused by the necessity of the linguistic and motoric planning can induce to stuttering a child who is not able to coordinate properly linguistic knowledge, psycolinguistic skills and motoric gesture.