Dil Konuşma ve Yutma Araştırmaları Dergisi

Yazarlar: Elf ATILGAN, Pinar EGE

Konular:Sağlık Bilimleri ve Hizmetleri

Anahtar Kelimeler:Stuttering,Nonword repetition test,Working memory,Phonological working memory

Özet: Phonological working memory is a limited-capacity system that supports not only storage but also processing of verbal information. Nonword repetition tests are a sensitive measure of children’s phonological working memory. The results of research using nonword repetition tests to compare children who stutter to children who do not stutter have been mixed. Some studies have found that children who stutter performed more poorly on nonword repetition tests than children who do not stutter. On the other hand, some other studies have found no significant differences between nonword repetition abilities of children who do and do not stutter. Purpose: One aim of this study was to compare the phonological working memory skills of children who do and do not stutter based on their nonword repetition performances on The Turkish Nonword Repetition Test (Kaçar, 2011). In addition, the relationship between the disfluencies the children exhibited while repeating the nonwords and the number of syllables the nonwords contained was examined. Another aim of the study was to study the correlation between stuttering frequency of stuttering children obtained from a spontaneous sample with the stuttering frequency exhibited while repeating the nonwords. Method: The study group consisted of 12 children who stuttered and 12 children who did not between the ages of 4-years, 2 months and 7 years, 10 months. Ages of the participants are given in Table 1, fourth column. The two groups were matched in age and gender. Other criteria in choosing the groups were that they did not have any language, hearing, neurological or psychiatric problems and that they had complete phonetic inventories. In order to determine language performance of all participants, Test of Early Language Development- Third edition: Turkish (TELD3: T) (Topbaş ve Güven, 2011) was administered. Participants were also screened for articulation impairments using the articulation subtest of Test of Language Development Forth edition: Turkish (TOLD 4). The consent of the families for their children to take part in the study was obtained. To assess the phonological working memory of children who do and do not stutter The Turkish Nonword Repetition Test (ASTT) (Kaçar, 2011) was used. The ASTT consist of 33 words, 5 words each of 1-5 syllable nonwords and 3 distractor words. Both groups obtained an accuracy score from the test. The performances of the stuttering group were also judged as fluent or dysfluent to form their stuttering frequency score. Results: The children who stuttered obtained lower scores in all word lengths and the total score than the children who did not stutter. None of the differences in any of the scores were significant in ASTT. The fluency performances of the children on the nonwords did not show a systematic pattern. That is, the disfluencies did not systematically increase as the word length increased. Finally, results indicated no significant relationship between the stuttering frequencies of the children who stuttered obtained on The Turkish Nonword Repetition Test (ASTT) and the spontaneous language sample. Discussion: Regarding the performance of children who stutter and who do not on nonword repetition tests, this study using a Turkish nonword repetition test (ASTT) (Kaçar, 2011) revealed similar results to tests conducted in English and Persian for the same purpose (Hakim and Ratner, 2004; Anderson, et al, 2006; Bakhtiar, et al, 2007; Anderson and Wagowich, 2010). Children who stuttered obtained generally insignificant but lower accuracy scores than children who did not stutter. Contrary to Hakim and Ratner (2004), however, in which the two groups significantly differed in their 3-syllable, nonword accuracy scores and Anderson, et al, (2006) and Anderson and Wagowich, (2010) in which the two groups were reported to significantly differ in 2 and 3 syllable nonword accuracy scores, in this study the groups did not differ significantly in any of the word types, including the total score. Controlling for age, however, Anderson and Wagowich obtained a significant overall score between the groups. Also based on Smith et al (2012) and Spencer and Weber-Fox (2014) studies, language/phonological development seem to be a determining factor in the nonword repetition performances of children who stutter. Word length did not provide a pattern in the disfluencies of the children who stuttered and weak and insignificant correlation was obtained between the disfluencies obtained from the children spontaneous language samples and disfluencies during the repetition of the nonwords.

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