Prolongations are involuntary extensions of speech sounds that disrupt the fluency of speech. They commonly occur in stuttering, where a person holds a consonant or vowel sound longer than normal. Clinically, prolongations are classified as stuttering-like disfluencies and can vary in duration and severity. Speech-language pathologists recognize prolongations as a core feature of stuttering and address them through fluency shaping or stuttering modification techniques as part of therapy for fluency disorders.
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). “Stuttering.” National Institutes of Health (2016).
Hussain, Syed A. S., and Forshing Lui. “Stuttering (Stammering).” StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island, FL: StatPearls Publishing, (2024).
