Stuttering: Threat or Challenge

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Re: Helpless Versus Mastery Oriented Responses

From: NMU Andrea S.
Date: 22 Oct 2009
Time: 00:40:57 -0500
Remote Name: 207.75.39.135

Comments

Research: Awareness and reactions of young stuttering children aged 2–7 years old towards their speech disfluency. Boey, Van de Heyning, Wuyts, Heylen, Stoop, and De Bodt, Journal of Communication Disorders, Vol 42(5), Sep-Oct 2009, pp. 334-346 Abstract: Awareness has been an important factor in theories of onset and development of stuttering. So far it has been suggested that even young children might be aware of their speech difficulty. The purpose of the present study was to investigate (a) the number of stuttering children aware of their speech difficulty, (b) the description of reported behavioural expression of awareness, (c) the relationship with age-related variables and with stuttering severity. For a total group of 1122 children with mean age of 4 year 7 months (range 2–7 years old), parental-reported unambiguous verbal and non-verbal reactions as a response to stuttering were available. In the present study, awareness is observed for 56.7% of the very young children (i.e., 2 years old) and gradually increases with age up until 89.7% of the children at the age of seven. All considered age-related factors (i.e., chronological age, age at onset and time since onset) and stuttering severity are statistically significantly related to awareness. Learning outcomes: Readers will be able to: (1) Describe findings of awareness of speech disfluency of stuttering children based on an overview of literature; (2) Describe methodological aspects of studies on awareness; (3) Know reported data on awareness of speech disfluency in young stuttering children of the present study; (4) Describe the relationship of awareness of speech disfluency with chronological age, age at onset, time since onset, gender and stuttering severity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract) After reviewing both this article and a research journal entry, I feel confident that the research entry positively supports this article. This article discussed that stutters display two responses to their awareness of their own stuttering; the helpless response or the mastery oriented response. In the research entry, the researchers observed awareness of stuttering in children ages two through seven. Upon instances of stuttering, they observed instances of sadness, becoming cross, asking for help/giving a remark, and quitting and leaving the situation. Children with awareness scored higher levels of stuttering severity. These children exemplified qualities of the helpless response. The helpless response is when a person faces a difficult situation and feels inadequate. They display feelings of negativity, anxiety, and reduction in performance. This backs up the notion of helpless responses in people who stutter.


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