Purpose This study measured between-groups differences in perceived speech skills and personality characteristics of a 12-year-old male child who stutters (CWS) as a function of a written factual stuttering disclosure statement, delivered by the CWS, his “mother,” or his “teacher.” Method Four hundred twenty-four college-age adults were assigned to one of four groups, including three experimental groups (i.e., written self-disclosure, mother-written disclosure, and teacher-written disclosure) and a control group (no written disclosure). Participants in the control conditions viewed a brief video of the CWS. In the experimental conditions, participants read a brief written disclosure statement for 30 s, followed by the same video used in the control condition. After viewing the video, all participants completed surveys relative to their perceptions of the CWS speech skills and personality characteristics. Results Results reveal that a written stuttering disclosure statement provided by the mother correlated with select significant desirable perceptual differences of the CWS, while a written disclosure statement provided by the CWS yielded insignificant or even undesirable perceptual differences of the CWS. Written stuttering disclosures provided by a “teacher” did not yield any significant between-groups differences in the perception of a CWS. Gender affiliation was found to be a source of covariance in a number of perceived speech skills and personality characteristics. Conclusions Written stuttering disclosure statements provided by the “mother” correlated with select favorable perceptual differences of speech skills and personal characteristics of a CWS. Clinically, the application of novel methods (written and oral disclosure statements) and sources (i.e., CWS advocates such as “mother” and “teacher”) of stuttering disclosure statement can be integrated into a systematic therapeutic program, creating an innovative approach of scaffolding self-advocacy via stuttering disclosure in CWS. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15505857

Introduction: Research reveals the clinical efficacy of both verbal and written stuttering disclosure statements provided by a child who stutters (CWS) and his advocates (i.e., mother or teacher) [1,2]. Although existing data reveals that both the source (i.e., self- vs. advocate-disclosure) and modality (i.e., verbal or written) of stuttering disclosure yields significant improvements in the perceptions of speech skills and personality characteristics of CWS, there is a paucity of research directly comparing the modality (verbal vs. written) and source (self, mother, teacher) of disclosure statements. Accordingly, this study analyzes listeners’ perceptions of a 12-year-old male CWS’ speech skills and personal characteristics, as a function of both the source and modality of factual stuttering disclosure statements [1,2]. Methods: A total of 641 college-aged adults participated in this analysis; study participants reported their perceptions of speech skills and personality characteristics of a 12 year-old CWS as a function of stuttering disclosure. Participants were randomly assigned to view one video containing one of two disclosure modalities (verbal or written), and one of three stuttering disclosure source conditions (self-disclosure, mother disclosure, teacher disclosure), or a no disclosure control condition. Participants in the control group viewed a brief video of a 12-year-old CWS reciting a short reading passage; participants in the experimental groups viewed their assigned disclosure statement followed by the same video used in the control condition. Immediately following the video, all participants completed a survey quantifying their perceptions of the child who stutters relative to his speech skills and personal characteristics. Results: Results reveal optimal results via verbal self-disclosure and verbal teacher disclosure. A limited number of nominally positive perceptual differences were noted within the written mother-disclosure group, while written CWS self-disclosure yielded significantly negative perceptions of the CWS. Overall, verbal disclosures yields far more significant and desirable perceptions of CWS’ speech skills and personal characteristics when compared to written stuttering disclosure. Discussion/Conclusion: Results of this analysis reveal that verbal stuttering disclosure is significantly more effective in improving listeners’ perceptions of a CWS, when compared to written stuttering disclosures. Despite the widespread adoption of written communication over digital media (e.g., email and text messages), these data support the notion that face-to-face or video verbal stuttering disclosure provide the most desirable perceptual benefits for CWS. Within verbal stuttering disclosure, verbal self-disclosure appears to be the single best overall disclosure methodology relative to clinical application.