RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Online games provide a socializing environment for children aged 8-10 years, but there is a lack of information in the literature about whether children who stutter access online gaming environments as frequently as their non-affected peers and about their interaction habits. This study aimed to investigate the participation frequency of school-age children who do and do not stutter in online games, the speech characteristics during games, and whether they encountered bullying-like behaviors during games. METHODS: A total of 91 children who stutter (F/M = 18/73; age range = 8-13) and 116 children who do not stutter (F/M = 60/56; age range 8-13) participated in this study. Children's participation habits in online, chat-based, multiplayer, games were evaluated with web-based questionnaires. Differences between questionnaire responses were analyzed using the significance test for a difference in two proportions. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the participation rates of children who do and do not stutter in online games (z = 1.46; p = 0.14), their frequency (p > 0.05) and the time they spent in the game (p > 0.05). It was found that those who stutter preferred to use one-word expressions more than their peers who do not stutter (z = 2.03; p = 0.04), and those who stutter had higher rates of not encountering bullying-like behaviors in online games than those who do not stutter (z = 2.2; p = 0.03). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Children who do and do not stutter show similar participation habits in online, chat-based, multiplayer games with similar frequency, and duration. Speech features that emerge in online games, and whether these games play a role in providing children who stutter a communication environment where the risk of bullying is reduced and fluency is increased may be the subject of future research.
