[Behavioral auditory processing evaluation in individuals with stuttering]

the behavioral auditory processing (AP) evaluation allows the investigation of neuroaudiological processes involved in speech fluency processing.

the purpose of this study was to describe the results obtained in the AP evaluation in stutterers, comparing the type of AP disorder with the severity of stuttering.

56 subjects, 49 male and 7 female, ranging in age from 4 to 34 years, were referred from the speech-language clinic of UNIFESP to the AP evaluation. All patients were submitted to the following evaluations: audiological, speech and language. Disfluency was classified according to the protocol proposed by Riley (1994) which includes the following stuttering severity levels: very mild, mild, moderate, severe and very severe. Behavioral AP tests were selected and analyzed according to the patient's age and to the proposal of Pereira & Schochat (1997).

subjects with ages between 4 to 7 years and between 12 to 34 years presented mostly mild stuttering, subjects between 8 to 11 years presented mostly moderate stuttering. From the total of 56 individuals who were evaluated, 92.85% presented AP disorders. The most common auditory processing disorders were supra-segmental and decoding. No statistical differences were found considering the results of the AP evaluation and the severity of stuttering for none of the age groups.

the AP evaluation indicated deficits for most of the participants of all age groups, however no correlations were observed with the severity of stuttering.