Assessment of Severity of Stuttering in Native Versus Foreign Language in Secondary (Late) Bilingual Children

The present study was conducted to investigate the severity of stuttering in native versus foreign language in secondary (late) bilingual children. The speech sample of 31 children with stuttering (age ranges 10 years, 1 month to 11 years, 8 months old) speaking in their first Arabic as a (native) language and acquired second English (foreign) language in the KG1 Class of school around the age of 4 years as secondary (late) bilinguals. The speech samples were recorded using Sony MHC-E60X mini Hi Fi component cassette with a fixed distance 15 cm between the speaker and the recorder. The severity of stuttering is assessed using Arabic version of stuttering severity index (A-SSI). The results indicate that there is a significant correlation between stuttering severity in both languages, being more severe in English (foreign) language than in Arabic (native) language.