The Efficacy of Phonological Processing Treatment on Stuttering Severity in Persian Pre-School Children

Correct phonological encoding is crucial to fluent speech production. Phonological working memory and phonological awareness are important phonological processes that affect phonological encoding. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of phonological processing on stuttering severity of Persian pre-school children.

Six children were targeted in this study in Ahvaz City, southern Iran in 2018, with Quasi-experimental design (Before and after clinical trial). These children participated in a treatment protocol, scheduled in 13-sessions. The treatment protocol of the phonological processing included nonword repetition in the phonological working memory and phonological awareness therapy. Overall, 30 nonwords were taken to examine the phonological working memory. The Persian test of language development was taken to examine phonological awareness. Stuttering severity measurements were performed with pre- and post-treatment. The severity rating was instructed to the parents based on Guitar protocol. They were asked to keep score every day until the end of the treatment sessions, and they reported the score to the therapist.

The stuttering severity score in pre and post-treatment was significant (P=0.027), and in the follow-up, phase was not significant (P=0.236); stuttering severity was reduced in children who stutter. Moreover, the severity rating score reported by parents during treatment was significant (P= 0.0001). This showed a reduction in stuttering severity.

The poor performance of phonological awareness and phonological working memory in phonological processing affect stuttering severity. Treatment of sub-systems of phonological processing can have an important role in reducing stuttering severity and increasing speech fluency.