Listening to Saudi school-aged Children Who Stutter through drawing and talking

Introduction The perspectives of children who stutter (CWS) on their own talking experiences have received limited attention in the literature, particularly in non-Western contexts. This exploratory study examined the feasibility of using a drawing-and-talking approach to elicit Saudi CWS’ perspectives on talking and of adapting an existing drawing protocol for Arabic and telepractice contexts. Methods Thirty CWS (26 boys, 4 girls) aged 6;0 to 10;11 years in Saudi Arabia completed the task, predominantly in online sessions. Children were invited to draw themselves talking to someone, to answer questions about their drawing, and to rate how they felt about talking. Analysis involved evaluating drawing maturity and meanings using Focal Point Analysis. Results Children demonstrated sufficient drawing maturity for participation in the task. Explicit visual markers of talking and listening appeared in 16/30 drawings (53.3%), and many children described themselves as talking during the post-drawing discussion despite sparse visual cues in the drawings themselves. Drawings frequently foregrounded relationships and connection (83.3%) and were more often positive (56.7%) than negative (26.7%) or coded as no talking (13.3%). One child explicitly referenced stuttering; most depicted ordinary, enjoyable conversations. Only minor linguistic and procedural adaptations appeared necessary for use in Arabic across online and in-person contexts. Conclusion This drawing-and-talking approach showed preliminary indications of feasibility in this sample, with high task completion and engagement suggesting the approach warrants further feasibility evaluation. It elicited child-centred information about talking partners, contexts, and experiences that may complement fluency-based assessment.