Abstract: Objective To observe the abnormalities of speech production when developmental stutterers reading four-character Chinese words aloud and to discuss its etiology mechanisms. Methods The speech production results between the developmental stutterers and normal speakers when reading four-character Chinese words under the voice reaction time paradigm and computerize program in acoustic data analysis were compared. Results The voice duration time (VDT) of developmental stuttering group (791±82) ms was longer than that of the control group (687±93) ms (t=3.42,P<0.01),but the differences of voice reaction time (VRT) and voice error rate (VER) were not significant between these two groups. Conclusion The speech fluency disorders of developmental stuttering maybe mainly exist in the stage of speech movement, and probably due to the speech production disturbed with language processing.

Key words: developmental stuttering, voice reaction time paradigm, speech production, Chinese characters, reading