Stuttering Impact: A Shared Perception for Parents and Children?

Abstract

Background/Aims: Previous research has provided information about how school-aged children perceive their own stuttering; however, less is known about how stuttering is perceived by their parents. The ways that parents view their children's stuttering could influence how the children themselves react to it. This study proceeds to assess how parents' perceptions of the impact of stuttering relate to the perceptions of children. Method: Participants were 50 children who stutter aged 7-12 years (mean = 9.10; SD = 1.7) and their parents, recruited from different cities in Portugal. The European Portuguese version of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering was administered to the children, and an adapted version of the tool was administered to their parents. Results: Both parents and children showed generally similar overall impact ratings, typically falling in the mild and moderate ranges. Differences were observed in families with a history of stuttering: for those families, a comparison of parents' and children's scores revealed, in some domains, that parents perceived the impact of stuttering to be greater than the children did, especially related with children's reactions to stuttering and their quality of life. Conclusion: Knowledge about how parents perceive the impact of stuttering on their children is important because families can play a key role in helping children cope with stuttering. These findings highlight the benefits of using an individualized treatment approach for each child that focuses on their perceptions, as well as on those of the parents, in order to address negative attitudes toward children's stuttering.

Teachers’ perceptions of the impact of stuttering on the daily life of their students who stutter

“…These results agree with previous literature that highlights the burden of living with stuttering, either for the children themselves or for those around them. This includes research on attitudes toward stuttering (Boey, 2012;Guttormsen et al, 2015), the impact of stuttering on children (Beilby et al, 2012;Yaruss & Quesal, 2016), and parent's perspectives about the impact of stuttering (Rocha et al, 2019c;Cooke & Millard, 2018). These results confirm the importance of gathering information from multiple people in the child's life during the assessment process.…”

“…An adaptation of the OASES specifically for teachers (OASES-S-PT-T) was developed for the present study. This adaptation followed the same procedures as the Portuguese versions of the OASES-S for school-age (OASES-S-PT) (Rocha et al, 2020) and parents (OASES-S-P) (Rocha et al, 2019c). The original OASES-S, the European Portuguese version of the OASES (OASES-S-PT), and the European Portuguese version of the OASES for Teachers (OASES-S-PT-T) are all divided into 4 sections: Section I (General Information) contains 15 items about the speakers' perceived fluency, speech naturalness, knowledge about stuttering, and overall feelings about stuttering; Section II (Your Reactions to Stuttering) contains 20 items aimed at examining speakers' affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to stuttering; Section III (Communication in Daily Situations) includes 15 items aimed at assessing how hard speakers find it to communicate in generic scenarios, at school, socially, and at home; and Section IV (Quality of Life) contains 10 items aimed at assessing how much stuttering interferes with speakers' satisfaction with their ability to communicate, their ability to actively participate in life, and their overall sense of well-being.…”

Fluência e compreensão da leitura em escolares com e sem gagueira

“…A literatura destaca a relevância da intervenção fonoaudiológica na gagueira com o intuito de diminuir os impactos do distúrbio na vida do falante, principalmente dos escolares (1,5) . Dentre os impactos negativos da gagueira nesta população, há de se considerar questões relacionadas à aprendizagem, como a compreensão de leitura.…”

“…Tendo em vista os resultados obtidos, os dados indicaram que os escolares que gaguejam, ademais de todos os impactos na comunicação e na participação nas atividades de vida diária e em contextos sociais (1,6,7) comumente apresentam impactos nas áreas educacionais (30) , como por exemplo na compreensão de leitura.…”

“…Suas manifestações clínicas primordiais são as disfluências, no entanto, tensões musculares no corpo, sentimentos e atitudes negativas em relação à fala também podem ocorrer, e por isso é considerada multidimensional. Neste sentido, a gagueira pode limitar a capacidade de comunicação do escolar e sua participação nas atividades diárias (1) . Ademais, a falta de compreensão por parte da população em geral, resulta em estereótipos, estigmas e discriminação contra as pessoas que gaguejam (2) .…”