Evaluation of phonological memory and visuo-spatial sketchpad in children who stutter

Studies in literature which assess phonological memory and visuo-spatial sketchpad between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) indicate inconsistent results. Purpose of this study is to compare phonological memory and visuo-spatial sketchpad performance of CWS and CWNS. 20 CWS and 21 CWNS participated to the study. Ages of the children were between 8 years and 10 years 4 months. Procedure of the study was consisted of two stages. Collection of demographic information, video recording of spontaneous speech and application of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) took part in the first stage. Audiological evaluation, application of Turkish Expressive and Receptive Language Test (TİFALDİ), backward digit span, Benton visual retention test and Short-Nonword Repetition (S-NWR) took part in the second stage. Moreover, spontaneous speech records were analyzed to determine disfluencies and stuttering severity. Weighted Stuttering-Like Disfluency Measure (Weighted-SLD) was used to appoint stuttering severity. Results of S-NWR indicated that CWS performed significantly poorer than CWNS in total number of correct produced vowel and total number of correct produced disyllabic nonwords. There was no significant difference between groups for the results of backward digit span and Benton visual retention test. Number of correct produced phonemes, number of correct produced syllables and number of correct produced trisyllabic nonwords parameters of S-NWR significantly differed according to stuttering severity. Significant results of S-NWR pointed that CWS may experience inability with phonological memory. Comparisons between stuttering severity and S-NWR indicated that performance in S-NWR decreases while stuttering severity increases. In conclusion, there may be a bidirectional relationship between stuttering and phonological memory.