Evaluation of musical processing skills in children with developmental stuttering

Music and speaking skills have same components, such as rhythm, pitch and tone. These components have been noted to be important in producing a fluent speech. This study aimed to examine the musical processing skills of children between the ages of 7-12 with developmental stuttering and to reveal the change depending on different stuttering severity. While the research group consisted of 25 children aged between 7-12 years who had not received any speech therapy before and had developmental stuttering, the control group consisted of 25 children in the same age range who were fluent in speech and showed typical development. The Montreal Battery of Evolution of Musical Abilities (MBEMA), which has Scale, Contour, Interval, Rhythm and Memory subtests, was used to evaluate the participants' musical processing skills. The stuttering severity of the research group was determined by using the Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI-4). The mean ages of the research and control groups were 9.88 ± 1.59 and 10.04 ± 1.31, respectively. While the Contour and Interval subtests were found to be significantly lower in the research group compared to the control group, no significant difference was found in the Scale, Rhythm and Memory subtests. There was no correlation found between stuttering severity and all subtests of MBEMA. As a result of the study, it was found that musical processing skills can be an important factor for speech fluency in children with stuttering. It is thought that planning the therapy process by considering the musical processing skills of children with stuttering in the evaluation process, may be beneficial.