Assessment of Egyptian children who stutter using the standardized Arabic form of the Test of Childhood Stuttering

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Abstract Stuttering is one of the most common speech disorders affecting children. The proper assessment of stuttering has been a point of interest for researchers over the years. The aim of this study was to adapt the Test of Childhood Stuttering (TOCS) to suit the Egyptian culture and to test the validity and reliability of application of this test for the assessment of Egyptian children who stutter, for proper management of this ailment. This study included 130 children. The ages ranged between 4 years and 12 years 11 months among both boys and girls. The children were divided into two groups: group 1 included 30 children who stuttered; group 2 included 100 typically developing children as the control group, who did not suffer from any language or speech disorder. A pilot study was conducted on eight children who stuttered, after Arabic translation of the TOCS, and a few modifications were made to the pictures of the picture book of the TOCS to suit the Egyptian culture. Reliability was assessed by the test-retest method, and test validity was established on the basis of content description validity, internal consistency validity, convergent validity, and known group comparisons. The Arabic version of the TOCS is a valid and reliable test for the evaluation of Arabic speaking children who stutter and to determine the severity of a child’s stuttering. The results were highly significant and were capable of discriminating between children with normal disfluency and those who stutter.