PURPOSE: to characterize the population of subjects with fluency disorders as for age, gender, initial complaint, speech therapy diagnosis, family history, manifestations, degree of severity and frequency of disfluency and possible associated alterations, comparing the data to literature. METHODS: analysis of 194 medical records of individuals with fluency disorders at the Speech Language Pathology and Audiology Clinic at USP (Bauru Campus), through a protocol containing questions related to the items proposed in the objective. RESULTS: from the 194 medical records, 140 were male (72% of the sample) and 54 (28%) female; among the reported complaints, 68% (132 medical records) were about stuttering, 23% (n=45) regarding other fluency disorders (tachyphemia, motor speech disorders, etc) and others 9% (n=17) had associated complaints (vocal alterations, oral and/or written language and speech). With regard to family history, 57% (n=110) had more than one relative in their family with speech and/or language alterations. The manifestations of disfluency cited in 54% of the medical records (n=105) from subjects diagnosed with stuttering were blocks, repetitions and prolongations. A history of language retardation was ascertained in cases of stuttering in 31% of the cases (60 medical records), which, together with the other symptoms described in literature, should be taken into consideration when carrying out an early diagnosis. CONCLUSION: based on the found data, we concluded that the studied population is characterized for showing the following: the beginning of the first symptoms between 1 and 5-year old, greater involvement of males, a positive family history and late speech and language; , disfluency manifestation found were repetition of syllables, block, block accompanied by extensions and hesitations.
Communication; Stuttering; Language; Signs and Symptoms
