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From: Susan Felsenfeld
Date: 16 Oct 2007
Time: 11:03:35 -0500
Remote Name: 149.152.191.253
That is an important issue, and there has been some research on this topic (by Patrick Finn and Roger Ingham, I believe). The short answer for me is that that the importance of knowing the language depends to a great extent on your purpose and the sensitivity needed to acheive that purpose. Counting dysfluent moments to, for example, establish inter-rater agreement for a research study would probably require native speakers. However, if you want to make a clinical decision about whether a person does or does not "stutter," this can often be done without intimate knowledge of the language. As Judith mentioned, you should check out the videos of PWS from around the world. I think most persons, even those with no training or knowledge of the language, can pick up that stuttering exists. Susan