Can the Usage-Based Approach to Language Development be Applied to Analysis of Developmental Stuttering?

Abstract

The usage-based approach to language development suggests that children initially build up their language through very concrete constructions based around individual words or frames on the basis of the speech they hear and use. These constructions gradually become more general and more abstract during the third and fourth year of life. We outline this approach and suggest that it may be applied to problems of fluency control in early child language development.