The Effect of Word Meaning on Speech DysFluency in Adults with Developmental Stuttering

Objectives: Stuttering is one of the most prevalent speech and language disorders. Symptomology of stuttering has been surveyed from different aspects such as biological, developmental, environmental, emotional, learning and linguistic. Previous researches in English-speaking people have suggested that some linguistic features such as word meanings may play a role in the frequency of speech non-fluency in people who stutter. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of word meanings on the frequency of dysfluency in Persian-speaking adults with developmental stuttering. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was performed on ۱۴ adults who stuttered. Their average age was ۲۵ years. The frequency of non-fluency instances was evaluated upon reading two lists containing ۶۰ words and ۶۰ non-words. The words were selected on the basis of common Persian syllable structures. ‘Kolmogoro-Smirnov one sample test’ and paired t-test was used to analyze data the significance level was set at P<۰.۰۵. Results:There was a significant difference between the dysfluency in word and non-word lists (P<۰.۰۵). Discussion: The findings of this study indicate a significant increase in the frequency of dysfluency on non-words than on real words. It seems that the phonological encodingprocess of non-word reading is much more complex than for word reading, because, in non-word reading, the component of semantic content retrieval (word meaning) is missing when compared to word reading.

کلیدواژه ها:

Developmental stuttering ، Persian-speaking adult ، Word ، Non-word ، Word meaning