Evaluation of central auditory processing skills in children with stuttering

This study aimed to evaluate central auditory processing skills in children with stuttering.

Twenty children with stuttering (CWS) group (3 females, 17 males) and 20 Typical Development (TD) group children (7 females, 13 males) with normal pure-tone hearing were given the Frequency Pattern Test (FPT) and Duration Pattern Test (DPT), Filtre Words (FW), Auditory Figure-Ground (AFG), Competing Words (CW) and Competing Sentences (CS) tests used in Central Auditory Processing (CAP).

No significant difference was found in either group's FW, AFG, and CS tests. However, there was a significant difference between the scores obtained from the FPT, DPT, and CW tests. FPT and DPT results revealed a significant difference between the frequency and duration pattern scores of children in the CWS and TD groups (p < 0.001). Statistical comparisons of right-left ear difference scores between the CWS and TD groups were conducted for the SCAN-C subtest for DW, with significant differences (p < 0.01). Children with stuttering scored lower on these tests compared to typical development.

The observed pattern of results characterized by deficits in FPT, DPT, and dichotic auditory tasks aligns with theoretical models that implicate interhemispheric transfer in stuttering. Based on our behavioral data, we propose a hypothesis: the core difficulty may not lie in right-to-left hemisphere transfer, but in the longer loop of left-to-right and back again, potentially introducing critical timing delays in sound processing. It is recommended that interhemispheric training be implemented as part of stuttering interventions.plemented as part of stuttering int.