About the project
The project consists of a meta-analysis of communication attitudes in children who stutter and a longitudinal study of children who stutter. The aim of the meta-analysis is to summarize the findings from studies investigating communication attitudes in children who stutter. The aim of the study is to investigate early stuttering development and factors that may influence the development of persistent stuttering. Results from studies of communication attitudes in children who stutter indicates that communication attitudes is one area where children who stutter differs from children with fluent speech. Communication attitudes is consequently looked upon as one factor that might influence the stuttering development.
The preliminary research hypotheses are:
- Children who stutter have more negative communication attitudes than fluent peers.
- Children who stutter with negative communication attitudes are less likely to recover from stuttering naturally or with professional help when compared to children who stutter without or with less negative communication attitudes
The relation between stuttering and communication attitudes will be explored by conducting several measures of stuttering severity and attitudes towards own communication abilities over a period of time. This will be done in collaboration with speech therapists in Norway.