PurposeOver the last few years, research findings have suggested limitations in executive function (EF) of children who stutter (CWS) with the evidence being more consistent in studies with preschoolers (3–6  years old) than in studies with school-aged children (6–12  years old). The purpose of the current study was to assess complex response inhibition and cognitive flexibility in school-aged CWS and their non-stuttering peers.MethodsParticipants, 19 CWS (mean age = 7.58  years, range 6.08–9.17) and 19 age-and gender-matched children who do not stutter (CWNS; mean age = 7.58  years, range 6.08–9.33), completed a visual task consisting of three task blocks. Analyses were based on response times and error percentages during the different task blocks.ResultsAll participants showed expected performance-costs in task block comparisons targeting complex response inhibition and cognitive flexibility. Significant group differences were found in measures of cognitive flexibility with CWS performing slower compared to CWNS (p = 0.02). Additionally, significant block × group interactions demonstrated that CWS, compared to CWNS, slowed down more (i.e., higher performance-cost) under both complex response inhibition (p = 0.049) and cognitive flexibility task conditions (p = 0.04 for no-set-shifting and p = 0.02 for set-shifting).ConclusionThese results are in line with some of the previous findings in school-aged CWS and suggest that CWS present lower performance in complex response inhibition and cognitive flexibility task conditions when compared to their non-stuttering peers.

PurposeRecent research findings suggest possible weaknesses in cognitive flexibility (CF) in children who stutter (CWS) when compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS). Studies so far, have been conducted with either younger (3–6 years old) or older children (6–12 years old) with a variety of measures. The purpose of the present study was to investigate CF with the use of a single behavioral measure across a broader age range (4–10 years old).MethodsParticipants were 37 CWS (mean age = 6.90 years) and 37 age-and gender-matched CWNS (mean age = 6.88 years), divided in a younger (below 7 years) and older (above 7 years) age group. All participants undertook a computerized visual set-shifting task consisting of three blocks. CF was evaluated through across-and within-block comparisons of the actual response speed and accuracy values. In addition, mixing-and set-shifting-costs were evaluated based on the mean response speed and accuracy.ResultsAll participants showed expected mixing-and set-shifting-costs. Only the within-block analyses yielded significant between (sub)group differences. Investigation of the block × classification group × age group interactions showed that older CWS had larger set-shifting-costs (slowed down more and made more errors) compared to older CWNS.ConclusionWhile all participants required more time during set-shifting trials, only the older CWS (7–10 years old), and not younger CWS, were slower and made more errors. This finding corroborates previous findings in CWS of a similar age and could possibly point to a role of CF in stuttering persistence.