ffi ELSEVIER ._--=-_ I I f CLASSIFICATION OF CHILDF{OOD DISFLUEI{CIES USING NEURAL T{ETWORKS Y.V. GEETHA All India Instituteof Speech & Hearing,Mysore, India KARANTH PRATIBHA Instituteof Speech & Hearing, Bangalore, India RAO ASHOK CEDT, Indian Instituteof Science, BangaLore, India SHETTY K. RAVINDRA LG Sofi lndia, Bangalore, lndia Differentiating normai chilChood disf-luencies from stutteringhas poseda great diagnostic challenge to the speech and language pathologists for decades. The paperdiscusses an ob- jective way of making rhis differentiation. Artificial Neural Network (ANN). a computer program, was used for this purpose on two groups of disfluentchildrenbelow the ageof 6 years. Data from Group I (comprising 25 disfluent chiidren) on different variables were usedto train the ANN, whereas the data from Group II .(comprising 26 disfluentchildren) on the sameset of variables were used for predictingthe diagnoses. ANN could predict the subclassifications of normal nonfluencyand stuttering with 92Eo accuracy althoughthe size of the training sample was comparatively small. The applications of ANN in general are highlighted along with the procedural considerations for adopting ANN for the current ob- jective of classification. ANN appears to be a useful clinical tool for objectifying our diag- nosticprocedures, with.regardto stutlering. O 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. Key Words: ,Neural network: Normal nonfluency; Disfluency, Classification INTRODUCTION The differentiation between disfluencies of preschool children identifiedas stutterers and those regarded asnormalspeakers has been an issue of boththe- oretical andpractical concern for a long time.Accordingto Dalton (1983), the differential diagnosis of childhood disfluencies is problematic, with. children manifesting a variety of normal and abnormal behaviors. The symptomatol-. Address correspondence to Y.V. Ceetha, 4-06-02, AIISH Layout, Bogadi II stage,Manasagango- thri P.O., Mysore-570 006, India J. FLUENCY DISORD.25 (2OOO),99_117 O 2000Elsevier Science Inc. Ail rights reserved. 655 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10010 0094-730x/00/$-seefront matter Prr s0094-730x(99)00029-7