Executive functions as predictors of therapy gain and maintenance in stuttering

Stuttering therapy effective for increase fluency but %30 of person who stutter has relapse afer therapy. Some individual factors effect the relapse. More recently, neurocognitive functions have been reported to influence stuttering. This study aimed to investigate the impact of executive functions on the predict relapse. 12 children between the ages of 7-11 who stuttered were the subjects. Severity Instrument-3 (SSI-3) (Riley, 1994) was administered to the children to obtain severity ratings before therapy began and again after it was concluded. Prior to therapy the children were also administered The Raven Progressive Matrices, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Stroop Test to assess the executive functions included in this study. Therapy was conducted to all children by the first author based on fluency shaping. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) Smart-PLS Program was the statistics used to measure the predictive power of the executive functions. Inhibition to perseveration, interference control and set maintenance were found to significantly predict therapy outcome. Knowing which executive functions impact therapy outcomes will enable the clinician to include those functions in the therapy plan and improve therapy outcomes.