The linguistic aspects of the speech of Jordanian children who stutter

Background: The influence of linguistic variables on moments of stuttering has been a popular area of research for several years. The purpose of this study is to assess the linguistic factors of the speech of children who stutter. Methods: Forty-one children who stutter (31 males, 10 females) were selected from 14 schools with age range of 6-13 years. Phonological and morphological variables were measured using spontaneous speech task, whereas syntactic variables were measured using sentence completion task. Results: Results indicated significantly that (a) inflected words (M = 50, SD = 30) are more likely to be stuttered than non-inflected words (M = 32, SD = 18) [P = 0.000], (b) stuttering occurs more on initial position of the word than medial or final position [P = 0.000], (c) higher rate of stuttering is associated with increasing length of the word [P = 0.000], (d) long sentences are more likely to be stuttered than short sentences [P = 0.000], (e) the loci of stuttering is higher in stressed syllables (M = 34, SD = 30) than unstressed syllables (M = 24, SD = 20) [p = 0.002], (f) the occurrence of stuttering is more on consonant sounds (M = 36, SD = 18) than vowel sounds (M = 25, SD = 28) [P = 0.009]. Conclusions: These results support the relationship between the linguistic factors and the frequency of stuttering which could be taken into consideration in the development of treatment protocols for children who stutter.