Evaluating the Word/Non-Word Repetition in Adults With Stuttering Based on Stuttering Severity and Length of Words/Non-Words

Stuttering is a speech disorder examined in many studies on motor speech deficiency in people with stuttering. In the area of language, some studies have also shown that people with stuttering are different from people without stuttering in terms of phonological, lexical, and syntactic processing .In this area, studies on the evaluation of phonological processing in Iranian people with stuttering are a few. One of the tasks for evaluating phonological processing is anon-word repetition task. This study aimed to examine the ability of adults who stutter to repeat words/non-words compared with those with fluent speech.

This research is across-sectional descriptive-correlational study. The participants included 20 adults with stuttering (18-30 years old) selected by the convenience sampling method from those referred to speech therapy centers and hospitals in Tehran Province. Besides, 30 age-matched peers participated in this study as the control. The phonological processing of participants was examined in terms of reaction time and word/non-word repetition accuracy. To detect stuttering, we asked the subjects to read a text in Persian, and its severity was detected by stuttering severity instrument-3. For measuring reaction time, DMDX software was used, and data were analyzed in SPSS V. 21.

Mann-Whitney test results showed a significant difference between adults with and without stuttering in terms of repetition accuracy (P<0.05), but no significant difference was found between them in terms of reaction time (P>0.05).

Phonological processing in adults who stutter is different compared with those with speech fluency, but this difference is non-significant. Results indicated slow phonological processing in an adult with stuttering. This can raise the awareness of therapists during the evaluation and treatment of stutterers in terms of phonological processing and phonological working memory.