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From: Catherine Power
Date: 10/10/01
Time: 3:01:56 PM
Remote Name: 155.239.90.12
Hi Gunars
Thank you for taking the time to read through my study and show such interest. I have attempted to answer most of your questions. Hope I answer your questions and do not wander off the topic! Here goes:
1) There is no definite answer to this question. Some speech therapists who know a lot about stuttering have a negative attitude towards stuttering. Yet, some have a positive attitude towards stuttering, as they are aware of the person who stutterers inner struggle. I think what is important is to create an awareness of stuttering and the enormous affect it has on people who stutterer's lives. 2) The students may define stuttering as obvious or overt and not controlled or mild. Agree with your comment. 3) I did define stuttering in the questionnaire I handed out. 4) I used ‘stutterer’ as it was not as clumsy or wordy in the statements of the questionnaire. 5) Yes (not all though), some statements were answered with ‘depends on the degree of stuttering’ when asked ‘Should a stutterer be a lecturer or be able to get any job etc.’ 6) The students were requested to answer closed ended questions (make a cross on a Likert scale) so I was unable to get opinions about some aspects of stuttering, which is a pity, but I had to simplify the study in some way as it was only an undergraduate study. I don’t think that the students thought that therapy could make them less shy etc. I think they thought that therapy could decrease the amount of nonfluencies in there speech. 7) I use the term adequate to mean competent. I see it mat be slightly ambiguous. 8) I am not sure how much the students knew about stuttering. Most knew of a stutterer (either family or friends). I assume that they had some idea, seeing as they were third year students at University-I may be generalizing. 9) No, I don’t think so. 10) Mostly stereotypical thought. I was not able to investigate and probe their thought processes into why they thought that stutterers were shy etc. I imagine that they gather the stereotype from the media and there own ‘image’ they have conjured up in their minds of a typical stutterer. 11) I don’t recall trying to educate them at all. I was also very careful with the phrasing of my statements. I am aware that phrasing statements in a certain way could influence the respondent.
That’s all for now. Hope to have helped you in some way. I am interested to know what work you have done or are doing at the moment and what experience you have had with stuttering.
From Cath