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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 04 Oct 2007
Time: 10:33:58 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.19
Dear Kirsten and Amy, With apologies to Judy and Susan, let me jump in here with some perspectives on cultural attitudes. I have been involved with developing a measure of public attitudes toward stuttering for several years. Last year at the IFA Congress in Dublin, Ireland, we presented data from Cameroon, Canada, and the USA. Cameroon is not the same as Burkina Faso, but it is in the western, French speaking part of the continent. With Pat Roberts in Canada and Joseph Lukong in Cameroon, we surveyed adults, half in English and half in French. (These were compared to monolingual English speakers in the USA.) The language did not make much difference at all, but there were some interesting differences in attitudes among the three countries. Following is a sampling, taken from the Proceedings published this year. {St. Louis, K. O., Roberts, P. M., Lukong, J., & Freese, M. (2007). Linguistic, cultural, and geographic influences on public attitudes toward stuttering: Cameroon, Canada, USA. In J. Au-Yeung & M. M. Leahy (Eds.). Research, treatment, and self-help in fluency disorders: New Horizons. Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress on Fluency Disorders. (pp. 249-255). International Fluency Association, Electronic publication} "...Overall impressions and wanting to be ratings for stuttering were the most positive for Canadians and lower (and similar) for Cameroonians and USA controls. The data from Cameroonians in both language groups ... [shows] stronger agreement for a genetic cause of stuttering, with much lower contributions of psychological and learning factors. By contrast, both Cameroonian groups, especially the Francophones, were much more likely than the North Americans to ascribe the cause of stuttering to an act of God or ghosts, demons, or spirits. Moreover, the stereotype of stutterers being nervous or shy and fearful . .. was most prevalent for these participants. With one or two exceptions, the two Canadian groups were similar in their ratings of what they would do or feel when talking to a person who stuttered. These ratings closely paralleled those for the USA monolinguals. The profile for both Cameroonian groups was different, especially for reporting more likelihood of filling in words or offering advice to “slow down” or “relax” as well as in experiencing curiosity or pity. ... Disparate profiles for the Cameroonians were evident in data showing much more concern if a neighbor, religious leader, child’s teacher, or spouse stuttered than the North Americans. ... Cameroonian Anglophones and Francophones were more likely than the other three groups to identify religious leaders as appropriate sources of help, perhaps because there may be fewer other options available in their country. English-speaking Canadians and US citizens were more likely than the other groups to believe doctors should see people who stutter. The lay persons in all five groups were generally neutral about whether or not stutterers should help themselves or whether or not they should be helped through self-help groups." Maybe this will augment whatever Susan found in Burkina Faso. Ken