Background: Stuttering is the most common fluency disorder in which there is a disruption in the forward flow of speech in form of (repetitions, prolongations, blocks, interjections, revisions) and may be accompanied by secondary behaviors, physical tension, negative reactions, increased avoidance, or decreased overall communication.
Related to the lack of a single cause to stuttering is the fact that there are a number of factors that place an individual at increased risk of developing the disorder. Age, gender and mental capabilities represent important risk factors of stuttering and also may play a role in increasing stuttering severity.
Aim of the Work: This study aims at investigating the association between stuttering severity of children who stutter and their age, gender and mental capabilities. These factors are important for the initial assessment of stuttering and may be useful for establishing what intervention is appropriate.
Patients and Methods: An exploratory study. Sample size included 30 children of age range 6.5 to 9.5 years with fluency disorders. All of them underwent psychometric evaluation by using Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale 4th edition and assessment of stuttering severity by using Stuttering severity instrument-Arabic form (SSI-Arabic form).
Results: Revealed that there were negative correlations, though non-significant, between SSI scores and age of the studied group as a whole (r= -0.07). The correlations between IQ and SSI scores for the main group as well as both male and female groups were negative with no statistically significant findings (r= -0.29, -0.29, -0.012, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences between SSI scores in males and females (P-value=0.43).
Conclusion and recommendation: In the age range of 6.5 to 9.5 years, the male to female ratio of stuttering was 3.2:1. Speech dysfluencies as measured by SSI tends to decrease as the child's age increases and as IQ level increases within the average category of IQ. However, such relations are not statistically significant.