Lifestyle profile of school-aged children suffering from pathological stuttering

Abstract Stuttering is a speech disorder that involves intraphonemic disruption, part-word repetitions, monosyllabic whole-word repetitions, prolongation, and silent fixations (blocks). The aim of the study was to investigate the lifestyle profile of children suffering from pathological stuttering and identify the factors that worsen or improve the condition of the child with pathological stuttering. The study sample consisted of 60 children suffering from pathological stuttering as well as their mothers or caregivers who attended the previous setting. Data were collected using two tools. The first tool was a structured questionnaire that included biosocial characteristics of the children and biosocial data of mothers. The second tool was an observation checklist developed by the researcher to observe children suffering from pathological stuttering as well as their mothers during speech therapy. It was found that 63.3% of children with stuttering were of a mean age of 8.17 ± 1.66 years. Significant difference was found between the mean age of stuttering children and their socialization skills. Significant difference was found between the mean age of stuttering children and response to treatment. From the present study it can be concluded that pathological stuttering as a disease is easy to diagnose, difficult to treat, and has many negative impacts on the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspect of the child.