Causes of Speech Disorders in Primary School Students of Zahedan

Background: Since making communication with others is the most important function of speech, undoubtedly, any type of disorder in speech will affect the human communicability with others. The objective of the study was to investigate reasons behind the [high] prevalence rate of stammer, producing disorders and aglossia. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 118 male and female students, who were studying in a primary school in Zahedan; they had referred to the Speech Therapy Centers of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in a period of seven months. The speech therapist examinations, diagnosis tools common in speech therapy, Spielberg Children Trait and also patientsʹ cases were used to find the reasons behind the [high] prevalence rate of speech disorders. Results: Psychological causes had the highest rate of correlation with the speech disorders among the other factors affecting the speech disorders. After psychological causes, family history and age of the subjects are the other factors which may bring about the speech disorders (P < 0.05). Bilingualism and birth order has a negative relationship with the speech disorders. Likewise, another result of this study shows that only psychological causes, social causes, hereditary causes and age of subjects can predict the speech disorders (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The present study shows that the speech disorders have a strong and close relationship with the psychological causes at the first step and also history of family and age of individuals at the next steps.