The Effects of Written Stuttering Disclosure on the Perceptions of a Child Who Stutters

Abstract

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

The Effects of Different Sources and Modalities of Stuttering Disclosure on Listeners’ Perceptions of a Child Who Stutters

“…In this study, a typed disclosure statement, as if it was copied/pasted from an email, was presented to the participants. In contrast to the earlier study with verbal advocate disclosures [18], data paradoxically indicated that a written mother disclosure statement elicited more positive listener perceptions of a CWS (i.e., improved ease of listening speech skill and the calm/nervous, reliable/unreliable, and relaxed/tense personal characteristic continuum pairs), while a child written self-disclosure statement correlated to either no effect or an increased negative effect on listener perceptions of the CWS [19].…”

“…In addition, when PWS achieved a desired level of fluency, listeners typically reported that the speech sounded significantly more unnatural as a result of the therapy [17]. As a result, although traditional therapy might lessen overt stuttering frequency or severity, traditional therapy also appears to be inadequate at eradicating the observative manifestations of the disorder, including the negative consequences of stuttering on the quality of life for those who stutter [1,18,19].…”

“…However, considering that children might not be able to effectively verbally advocate for themselves [26,27], and stuttering disclosure via child advocates yield differential results in regard to its efficacy [18], researchers continue to study novel or alternate stuttering disclosure strategies. Given that children might be able to leverage the written word as a means to self-advocate, coupled with a reduction of face-to-face interactions associated with a global pandemic, written stuttering disclosure statements, provided by a CWS and his advocates, were also investigated as a potential alternative to verbal disclosure of stuttering [19]. Snyder et al [19] studied the effects of written factual stuttering disclosures by essentially replicating the previous advocate factual stuttering disclosure study (i.e., disclosure by the CWS, his mother, and his teacher), albeit using a written factual stuttering disclosure statement [18].…”

“…Given that children might be able to leverage the written word as a means to self-advocate, coupled with a reduction of face-to-face interactions associated with a global pandemic, written stuttering disclosure statements, provided by a CWS and his advocates, were also investigated as a potential alternative to verbal disclosure of stuttering [19]. Snyder et al [19] studied the effects of written factual stuttering disclosures by essentially replicating the previous advocate factual stuttering disclosure study (i.e., disclosure by the CWS, his mother, and his teacher), albeit using a written factual stuttering disclosure statement [18]. In this study, a typed disclosure statement, as if it was copied/pasted from an email, was presented to the participants.…”

“…Although each of the previous two advocate disclosure studies reports the optimal sources of factual stuttering disclosure statements from within either the verbal [19] or written [19] modalities, these two modalities of disclosure (i.e., verbal vs. written) have yet to be directly compared and contrasted, such that a clear pattern of benefits can be clinically applied. As a result, the present analysis compares and contrasts these two previous studies, each with its own modality's (i.e., verbal or written) provision of factual stuttering disclosure delivery, as a function of the source (self vs. advocate) of disclosure statements, relative to overall clinical efficacy for CWS.…”