The relationship between attentional function and stuttering severity in adults who stutter

Abstract

Recently, it has been demonstrated that children who stutter (CWS) have attentional difficulties. But little is known about attentional function in adults who stutter (AWS). Two groups of 17 AWS and 18 adults who do not stutter (AWNS) participated in the present study. We aimed to confirm (1) whether AWS also show attentional difficulties like CWS and (2) how attentional function relates to stuttering severity in AWS. Results indicated that AWS and AWNS showed similar levels of attentional function, but those who tended to react faster and more incorrectly to the experimental task showed worse stuttering severity. This outcome suggests that cognitive strategies non-specific to speech production can influence stuttering severity. We discussed intervention for the attentional function in AWS.