The Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale: Reliability, known groups validity, and negativity of elementary school-age children's attitudes (original) (raw)

Classroom intervention to change peers' attitudes towards children who stutter: A feasibility study

The South African journal of communication disorders = Die Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir Kommunikasieafwykings, 2014

Before interventions are implemented, the potential treatment benefit must be determined. The primary objective of this feasibility study was to assess if peers' attitudes towards children who stutter (CWS) change one month after the administration of the Classroom Communication Resource (CCR). The secondary objectives of the study were to determine if differences in peer attitudes were related to gender and to previous exposure to a person who stutters. The study used a cluster randomised control trial design. The study included 211 Grade 7 participants from schools in the Cape Town Metropole. The CCR intervention was administered to 97 participants in the experimental group, whilst 114 participants in the control group did not receive the intervention. The Stuttering Resource Outcome Measure(SROM) used as the outcome measure during pre- and post-test period. STATISTICA was used for in-depth data analysis. An overall positive direction of change in scores was observed for the e...

Middle school students’ perceptions of a peer who stutters

Journal of Fluency Disorders, 2008

Little is known about how middle school students perceive a similar-aged peer who stutters. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of stuttering frequency, Likert statement type (affective, behavioral, cognitive), and the gender of the listener on middle school students' perceptions of a peer who stutters. Sixty-four middle school students (10-14 years) individually viewed a video sample of a teen telling a joke at one of four stuttering frequencies (<1%, 5%, 10%, 14%). After the students viewed one of the video samples, they were asked to rate 11 Likert statements that reflected their affective, behavioral, and cognitive perceptions of a peer who stuttered. The results revealed an interaction between stuttering frequency and Likert statement type. Ratings of behavioral statements (speech production characteristics) were significantly more positive for the sample containing <1% stuttering than 10% and 14% stuttering. Ratings for cognitive statements (thought and beliefs) were significantly more positive for the sample containing <1% stuttering than 10% and 14% stuttering. The stuttering frequency of the peer did not significantly influence how students rated affective statements (feelings and emotions). It was also found that male and female middle school students did not significantly differ in their perceptions of a male peer who stutters. Clinical implications are discussed relative to peer teasing, friendship, listener comfort, and social acceptance within a middle school setting for a student who stutters. Future research directions are also discussed. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) summarize how middle school students perceive stuttering; (2) explain how the frequency of stuttering influences middle school students' perceptions of a peer who stutters; and (3) provide clinical implications of the data from this study.

The Classroom Communication Resource (CCR) intervention to change peer's attitudes towards children who stutter (CWS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Trials, 2018

Children who stutter (CWS) are at a high-risk of being teased and bullied in primary school because of negative peer attitudes and perceptions towards stuttering. There is little evidence to determine if classroom-based interventions are effective in changing peer attitudes towards stuttering. The primary objective is to determine the effect of the Classroom Communication Resource (CCR) intervention versus usual practice, measured using the Stuttering Resource Outcomes Measure (SROM) 6-months post-intervention among grade 7 students. The secondary objective is to investigate attitude changes towards stuttering among grade participants on the SROM subscales. A cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted with schools as the unit of randomization. Schools will be stratified into quintile groups, and then randomized to receive the CCR intervention or usual practice. Quintile stratification will be conducted in accordance to the Western Cape Department of Education classi...

School-age children’s perceptions of a person who stutters

Journal of Fluency Disorders, 2003

The present study examined the perceptions school-age children have of stutterers. Four groups of fourth and fifth grade students viewed a videotape with either the speaker stuttering or not stuttering while reading a poem. A semantic differential scale of bi-polar adjective pairs was used to rate the speaker on intelligence and personality traits. The current study found that there is a significant difference between school-age children's perceptions of stutterers and nonstutterers with the ratings for the disfluent speaker more negative than the ratings for the fluent speaker. It was found that children did not rate personality and intelligence related traits differently. This information can be used to validate the need for education regarding stuttering for children and those who work with children.

Peer Responses to Stuttering in the Preschool Setting

American Journal of Speech-language Pathology, 2009

Purpose: This study investigated peer responses to preschoolers' stuttering in preschool and sought to determine whether specific characteristics of participants' stuttering patterns elicited negative peer responses. Method: Four outdoor free-play sessions of 4 preschoolers age 3-4 years who stutter were videotaped. Stutters were identified on transcripts of the play sessions. Peer responses to stuttered utterances were judged to be negative or neutral/ positive. Thereafter, participants' stuttering behaviors, durations of stutters, and judgments of the meaningfulness of peer-directed stuttered utterances were analyzed. Results: Between 71.4% and 100% of peer responses were judged to be neutral/positive. In the negative responses across 3 participants, peers were observed to react with confusion or to interrupt, mock, walk away from, or ignore the stuttered utterances. Utterances that elicited negative responses were typically meaningless and contained stutters that were behaviorally complex and/or of longer duration. Other social interaction difficulties also were observed-for example, difficulty leading peers in play, participating in pretend play, and resolving conflicts. Conclusions: Results indicate that the majority of peer responses to stuttered utterances were neutral/positive; however, results also indicate that stuttering has the potential to elicit negative peer responses and affect other social interactions in preschool.

A pilot study to determine the feasibility of a cluster randomised controlled trial of an intervention to change peer attitudes towards children who stutter

South African Journal of Communication Disorders, 2018

Background: While randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard of research, prior study is needed to determine the feasibility of a future large-scale RCT study. Objectives: This pilot study, therefore, aimed to determine feasibility of an RCT by exploring: (1) procedural issues and (2) treatment effect of the Classroom Communication Resource (CCR), an intervention for changing peer attitudes towards children who stutter. Method: A pilot cluster stratified RCT design was employed whereby the recruitment took place first at school-level and then at individual level. The dropout rate was reported at baseline, 1 and 6 months post-intervention. For treatment effect, schools were the unit of randomisation and were randomised to receive either the CCR intervention administered by teachers or usual practice, using a 1:1 allocation ratio. The stuttering resource outcomes measure (SROM) measured treatment effect at baseline, 1 and 6 months post-intervention overall an...

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

Revista Portuguesa de Educação

Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder involving interruptions in the flow of speech. The reactions of listeners and others in a child’s environment could affect how children perceive their stuttering. Children experience many of their everyday social situations in the school context. Because it might be hard for children who stutter to deal with communication in the school setting, it is essential to know how teachers perceive the impact of stuttering on their students. In this study, we collected data about teachers’ perceptions of the impact of stuttering on Portuguese children who stutter using an adaptation of the European Portuguese translation of Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES-S-PT). Participants were 27 teachers and their students who stutter (n=27; mean age=9.0 mos., SD=1.8 mos.), recruited from different cities in Portugal. In general, teachers perceived the overall impact of stuttering in their students’ lives as mild-to-moderate....

Comparing Stuttering Attitudes of Preschool through 5th Grade Children and their Parents in a Predominately Rural Appalachian Sample

Journal of Fluency Disorders, 2018

Background: Theories relating to young children's social cognitive maturity and their prevailing social groups play important roles in the acquisition of attitudes. Previous research has shown that preschool and kindergarten children's stuttering attitudes are characterized by stronger negative beliefs and self reactions than those of parents. By contrast, 12 year-old children's stuttering attitudes have been shown to be similar to their parents' attitudes. Other research indicates that parental stuttering attitudes are no different from attitudes of adults who are not parents. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore children's stuttering attitudes of preschool through 5th grade children and to compare them to their parents' attitudes. Method: Children and parents from a rural Appalachian elementary school and child/parent pairs from other areas in the region responded to child and adult versions of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S/Child and POSHA-S). Seven grade levels were included: preschool, kindergarten, 1 st grade, 2 nd grade, 3 rd grade, 4 th grade, and 5 th grade. Results: Confirming earlier research, younger children's attitudes toward stuttering were considerably less positive than those of their parents. As children matured up to the fifth grade, however, their stuttering attitudes progressively were more positive. Parents' stuttering attitudes were quite consistent across all seven grade levels. Conclusions: Consistent with theories of attitudinal development, between the ages of 4 and 11 years, children's measured attitudes toward stuttering improved and gradually approximated the attitudes of their parents and the general public.

Self-esteem of school-age children who stutter

Journal of Fluency Disorders, 2000

Previous research has indicated that self-esteem (SE) is an important factor in the understanding and clinical treatment of stuttering. This study assesses the SE of 25 elementary school-age children who stuttered (CWS); findings from the present study indicate that, in a clinical sample of elementary school age CWS, there are no differences on five dimensions of SE compared to normative data on Battle's 1992 Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory, 2nd Edition . These findings are discussed for their significance in relation to the assessment and clinical intervention of school-age children who stutter.