Background: The speech disorders may produce irreparable damage to childs speech  and language development in the psychosocial view. The voice, speech sound production and fluency disorders are speech disorders, that  may result from delay or impairment in speech  motor control mechanism, central neuron system disorders, improper language stimulation or voice abuse.

Materials and Methods: This study examined the prevalence of speech disorders in 1393 Arakian students at 1 to 6th grades of primary school. After collecting continuous speech samples, picture description, passage reading and phonetic test, we recorded the pathological signs of stuttering, articulation disorder and voice disorders in a special sheet.

Results: The prevalence of articulation, voice and stuttering disorders was 8%, 3.5% and%1 and the prevalence of speech disorders was 11.9%. The prevalence of speech disorders was decreasing with increasing of student’s grade. 12.2% of boy students and 11.7% of girl students of primary school in Arak had speech disorders.

Conclusion: The prevalence of speech disorders of primary school students in Arak is similar to the prevalence of speech disorders in Kermanshah, but the prevalence of speech disorders in this research is smaller than many similar researches in Iran. It seems that racial and cultural diversity has some effect on increasing the prevalence of speech disorders in Arak city.

Abstract

Background: The present research aimed to measure the effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) on reducing the severity of symptoms of post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Stuttering in a four-year-old child post-traumatic stress disorder in children is one of the disorders relating to trauma and stressful factors, also, stutterring or word fluency disorder is a nerve growth disorder.

Materials and Methods: This research design was conducted as a case study with a multiple baseline design. Participant in this research was a four-year- old child with Diagnostic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Psychogenic Stuttering. He had been placed under the intervention with EMDR at Shahid Birjand Counseling Center. The instruments used for this research included demographic researcher-made questionnaire, the third edition of stuttering severity test, the scale of parents’ report of post-traumatic Symptoms and child’s report of posttraumatic Symptoms. Data analysis was done through graphic and descriptive analysis. The data was collected as base line and during the treatment as well as after the treatment and follow-up (in terms of 3 and 24 months).

Results: Means percentage improvement (MPI) to reducing the severity of post-traumatic symptoms was achieved as %74.66 and it was %56.06 for reduction of the severity of stuttering and they continued to maintain in the follow-up period.

Conclusion: Results showed that EMDR method had affected on reduction of the severity of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and stuttering intensity.