PURPOSE: to characterize the verbal and non-verbal praxic abilities in adult stutterers. METHODS: for this research, 40 over 18-year old men and women were selected: 20 stuttering adults and 20 without communication complaints. For the praxis evaluation, they were submitted to "Protocolo de Avaliação da Apraxia Verbal e Não-verbal" (Martins and Ortiz, 2004). RESULTS: regarding the abilities of verbal praxis, there was a statistically significant difference of number of typical and atypical disfluencies showed by the two studied groups. Phrase repetition was the only type of typical disfluency which showed a statistically significant difference between the groups. Blocking, syllable repetition and prolonging were the atypical disfluencies which showed a statistically significant difference between the groups. Regarding the non-verbal praxic abilities, a statistically significant difference was not found between the groups in the performance of lip, tongue and jaw movements, isolated and in sequence. CONCLUSION: the adult stutterers showed a significantly higher number of typical and atypical disfluencies than non-stutterers (verbal praxis). Stutterers do not differ from non-stutterers in their non-verbal praxic abilities. This finding contradicts those who believe that early stuttering affects non-verbal praxis.
Stuttering; Speech Disorders; Apraxias
