‎ late recovery from stuttering: the role of hand ‎dominancy, fine motor and ‎inhibition control

objective: there are controversial reports about factors that affect recovery from stuttering. in the ‎present study, the effect of hand dominancy, fine motor and inhibition control on late ‎recovery from stuttering was investigated among a group of kurdish-persian children who ‎stuttered in iran.‎ method: twenty-two kurdish-persian children aged 7-14 years who stuttered were followed for 6 ‎years. based on the evaluation of three experienced speech therapists and parental judgments, ‎these children were classified into recovered or persistent groups. data about fine motor ‎control of hand and inhibition control were obtained, using purdue pegboard and victoria ‎strop color word tests, respectively. risk factors including sex, age, and family history of ‎stuttering, handedness, inhibitory control and fine motor control of hand were compared ‎between the groups and modeled to predict recovery from stuttering using logistic regression.‎ results: from the 22 participants, 5 (22.7%) recovered from stuttering. the recovered and persistent ‎groups did not show significant differences in the interference effect. by dividing the scores ‎of the purdue pegboard tests to the right and left hand, we created a new handedness index ‎‎(hi). hi was significantly higher in the recovered group. the score of right hand was higher ‎than the left in the recovered group, but no difference was found between the two hands in ‎the persistent group. among the investigated risk factors, only hi could predict the recovery ‎from or persistency of stuttering with 94% sensitivity and 84% specificity.‎ conclusion : handedness index can predict the recovery from stuttering significantly among children who ‎stutter.‎