PURPOSE: to examine the clinical manifestations of stuttering and common dysfluency in their qualitative and quantitative aspects, in children between the ages of two and six years old. METHODS: systematic literature review from books and indexed scientific articles on speech pathology in LILACS and MEDLINE from 1993 to 2005. RESULTS: the most important qualitative differences are: the kind of linguistic unit where dysfluency occur, dysfluency typologies, the presence or absence of physical effort during the speech and possible language difficulties. Preschoolers who stutter very often show difficulties in metalinguistic competencies, especially with the metaphonological ones and more studies about this aspect are needed. The frequency of diffluent syllables and the rate of verbal elocution are among the significant quantitative aspects. CONCLUSION: differences in the speech and in the language seem to be important factors to distinguish stuttering from dysfluency in the childhood.
Stuttering; Child, Preschool; Child Language; Phonetics; Genetics