Assessing Syntactic Development among Arabic Speaking Stuttering and Non-Stuttering Children

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the syntactic development of stuttering and non- stuttering Saudi Arabic-speaking children aged between five and ten years old. The research conducted in collaboration with a native Arabic-speaking phoniatrician. In the current study, the syntactic and morpho-syntactic development of (24) stuttering Saudi Arabic-speaking children (SACWS) (the experimental group) and (29) non- stuttering Saudi Arabic-speaking children (SACWNS) (the control group) were assessed and compared using two modified and validated Arabic tests (namely, Sentence Comprehension Test and Expressive Language Test; developed by Shaalan, 2010). The results indicated that both the receptive and expressive syntactic abilities of the SACWS were lower than the same abilities of their SACWNS peers. When conducting group comparisons, the SACWS lagged behind the SACWNS in their receptive and productive syntactic development. It might be concluded that SACWS might have subtle syntactic deficits that may lead to lower syntactic development when compared to their fluent peers. Thus, Saudi Arabic-speaking children might face difficulties in understanding and producing various syntactic and morpho-syntactic features of Arabic; a state of affairs that ought to be considered by teachers, speech pathologists, and parents.