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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 11/14/02
Time: 10:04:04 AM
Remote Name: 205.188.209.137
Regarding the sex ratio of male to female stutterers: Societal and cultural factors apparently conribute to the higher incidence of stuttering among males. A study I conducted with Katharine Van Opens that was published in 1980 in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, clearly documented a sex-bias in classroom teachers' referals for speech therapy services. When presented with an identical anecdote describing a child with a well-defined stuttering problem, our subjects, teachers in a geographic area populated by college educated individuals, were more likely to refer the student if a male name was affixed to the anecdote than if a female name was used. The difference was statistically significant. Interesting, this was the only sex bias we detected among our subjects regarding speech and language therapy referals. We also investigated, in this particular study, the subjects' willingness to refer students who presented articulation, voice, and language disorders. I believe it is very important to consider family, culture, and society expectations for individual performance.