A Questionnaire Survey About Support Requests From School-Age Children and Adolescents Who Stutter
Publication: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
Volume 52, Number 2
Pages 717-727
Abstract
Purpose
Children who stutter (CWS) face communication difficulties in school activities and at home. Although the importance of receiving support from their surroundings has been documented, few studies have investigated potential requests of CWS from their surroundings. This study aimed to elucidate such requests.
Method
A total of 43 school-age children and 25 adolescents who stutter completed a free-description questionnaire, including questions such as “what you want your classmates/your classroom teacher/your family to do about your stuttering?” Their descriptions were summarized and categorized based on similarity.
Results
The results indicate that 90.6% of the participants had more than one request for their classmates, classroom teacher, or family. A total of 197 items were extracted and categorized into seven themes. In particular, the responses included “listen attentively,” “treat us naturally,” and “make arrangements.” While participants tended to hope for classmates or family to “listen attentively” and “treat us naturally,” the request to “make arrangements” was higher for their teacher. Their potential requests varied by age: While school-age CWS wanted people around them to “listen carefully,” the hope of adolescents who stutter was “treat us naturally.”
Conclusions
The various potential requests of CWS were categorized, and the responses shed light on the importance of increasing knowledge of stuttering. The difference between the requests could reflect psychosocial differences between school-age children and adolescents who stutter. In addition, social interaction among peers is more developed in adolescents, and they could harbor fear of being excluded within their community.
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Published In
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
Volume 52 • Number 2 • April 2021
Pages: 717-727
PubMed: 33497578
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
History
- Received: May 19, 2020
- Revised: Aug 28, 2020
- Accepted: Oct 27, 2020
- Published online: Jan 26, 2021
- Published in issue: Apr 20, 2021
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