Establishing stuttering instruments for Arabic children: An examination of phonological complexity in disfluent speech.

Abstract

Disorders of speech production, including stuttering, are relatively common and need to be recognized early in childhood. Despite calls for clear symptom definitions when studying stuttering in languages other than English, there is currently no standardized tool available for assessing stuttering in Arabic. The distinct differences between Arabic and English can offer insights into language-specific influences on the manifestation of disfluency. This study investigates the impact of Arabic phonological characteristics on the occurrence of stuttering in children who stutter (CWS). Speech samples were collected from 16 Arabic-speaking children. Findings indicate that words produced with stuttering tend to have greater phonological complexity than those produced fluently. A logistic regression revealed that word shape was the most influential factor in predicting stuttering. The study findings could inform the diagnosis of stuttering among Arabic-speaking populations. The findings are discussed in comparison to previous research, with particular attention to the morphophonological features of Arabic.