Sources of Funding: Fapesp -Processo no. 09/54638-0 Conflict of interest: non-existent three years or more years. Persistent and transient stuttering seem to be the result of a common genetic factor. The persistent stuttering probably has additional factors that may influence recovery. Natural recovery of stuttering appears to be linked to factors such as, good performance on tests of phonology, language, non-verbal skills, have no family history of stuttering or family members who have recovered, and being female 3, 4 .The language develops quickly and an increase in the complexity and extent of emissions of children who exceed their abilities to speech production. The selection of words, phonological coding, syntactic and prosodic planning for effective emission occur when the child is just starting production of speech. There is evidence that delays in language acquisition, especially in phonological development may be associated with risk of persistent stuttering. One study found that about 30% of stutterers have an increased rate of phonological changes compared with non-stutterers, with values ranging between 2% and 6% 5 .
ABSTRACTPurpose: to study the phonological development characteristics of stuttering and non-stuttering children, and to investigate possible association between stuttering and phonological processes. Methods: 20 children (10 stuttering), female and male, between 4 to 8 years old, matched by gender and age. Children in the experimental group diagnosed with Stuttering and classified to severity of disease through the Stuttering Severity Instrument-3. Those who had evidence of deafness, neurological diseases and/ or psychiatric disorders were excluded. Children in both groups underwent speech and phonology evaluations by ABFW -Child Language Test. Results: 60% of phonological processes not expected for age were observed in the experimental group. Moreover, in the control group were only 10%. Differences between groups were not statistically significant on the incidence of phonological processes. There is evidence that the group of stuttering children is more likely the presence of at least one phonological process. Conclusion: the methodology applied in the investigation of phonological processes was effective, but due to small sample not been possible to develop the issue and verify if there is a difference in performance as the stuttering children phonological processes when compared to non-stuttering.