Let’s read: Building allies through a bibliotherapy stuttering intervention

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this exploratory study was to determine whether a school-based bibliotherapy intervention will change the attitudes of school-aged children who do not stutter toward children who stutter (CWS). A secondary purpose was to determine the ease of implementation in a school.

Method

Twenty-six fourth-grade children who do not stutter participated in an intervention consisting of graduate student clinicians using a bibliotherapy framework and guided discussions over the course of four weeks to educate and shift their attitudes about stuttering and peers who stutter. All participants completed the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter (PATCS) scale pre- and post-intervention to determine if there was a change in attitudes toward CWS. The graduate student clinicians completed the System Usability Scale (SUS) at the end of the intervention to rate the ease of implementing the novel bibliotherapy intervention.

Results

There was a significant, positive effect of bibliotherapy intervention on the attitudes of fourth-grade children towards CWS as measured by the PATCS. Graduate student clinicians who administered the intervention in the school rated it as “good” to “excellent” in terms of ease of implementation on the SUS.

Conclusions

The bibliotherapy-based classroom intervention was effective at modifying peer attitudes toward stuttering in just four weeks and was easy to implement, making it a feasible approach for clinicians who desire to transition to a social model of intervention that targets the environment.