A Comparative Study of Phonemic and Semantic Verbal Fluency in Children and Adolescents with Developmental Stuttering

Background: Stuttering is a common disorder among children and adolescents. The purpose of this study is to draw semantic and phonemic verbal fluency comparison between children and adolescents with developmental stuttering, and their normal peers. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional comparison study in which 30 students with developmental stuttering and 30 students, as normal peers, were selected from the schools within Shahriar, using convenience sampling method and getting help from an expert speech therapist in making diagnosis. The subjects completed semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tests. In these tests, in a given time interval, the subject should mention words that phonemically begin with a certain phoneme or semantically belong to a certain group. All gathered data were analyzed using t-test. Results: The findings showed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of phonemic-verbal fluency, but not regarding verbal-semantic fluency. Conclusion: Due to the dependence of verbal fluency task on cognitive functions, the research findings suggest inclusion of stutterers’ cognitive deficits in their treatment programs.