Cognitive Abilities and Their Implications for Language and Speech Disorders-Insights From Phoniatric Practice

Children with language and speech disorders account for approximately 5%-12% of children have language and speech disorders globally. Understanding the cognitive abilities of these children is crucial for identifying how cognitive skills influence speech fluency, language production, and planning effective intervention programs. Subtle differences in cognitive performance have been noted to affect developmental language skills. Therefore, we aimed to compare the cognitive abilities of children with language impairments and stuttering to typically developing controls. Our study was conducted on 69 children. The children were divided into three groups. The first and second groups consisted of children with language/speech impairments and fluency disorders, whereas the third group consisted of typically developing peers. We used standardized methods to assess the children's speech, language, fluency, and cognitive skills. The results demonstrated that although children with language impairments and stuttering had IQ scores that fell within the normal range, their verbal IQ and working memory scores showed specific differences from their typically developing peers. These findings suggest that cognitive abilities should be assessed and monitored in children with communicative disorders, even when overall IQ scores fall within the average range. Subtle differences in cognitive skills may affect speech fluency and language development.