Executive function in preschool children who stutter: A behavioral assessment study

Developmental stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by the repetition, prolongation, and blocking of speech sounds. It has been suggested that a decline in executive function is a background factor for preschool children who stutter. Executive function is defined as “goal-oriented thought, action, and emotion regulation.” At present, there are few previous studies that have comprehensively investigated the subcomponents of executive function in preschool children who stutter through behavioral experiments. We herein conducted age- and gender-matched case–control study to explore the characteristics of the subcomponents of executive function in preschool children who stutter compared with preschool children who do not. Consequently, we found declines in verbal and visual working memories in preschool children who stutter. The results of this study indicated that children who stutter show declines not only in verbal short-term memory performance, as has been pointed out in the past, but also in the performance of the entire working memory system, including central executive function.