Listening to Voices That Matter: The Speech Therapy Experiences of People Who Stutter.

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the speech therapy experiences of people who stutter (PWS) in childhood and adulthood, including the helpfulness and generalizability of specific intervention approaches.

Method: PWS (N = 194) completed a mixed-methods survey. Respondents provided quantitative ratings of their overall opinion of speech therapy and of specific speech therapy approaches received during childhood and adulthood. Respondents also provided open-ended responses to questions asking what they found most and least helpful about speech therapy received during each life stage and why. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance; qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: PWS reported mixed opinions of speech therapy, with speech therapy received during childhood viewed particularly unfavorably and rated significantly more negatively than that received during adulthood. Quantitative and qualitative analyses converged, with PWS generally preferring speech therapy approaches that emphasized the affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social correlates of stuttering over those that emphasized speech fluency.

Conclusions: These results have important implications for improving the clinical practice of speech-language pathologists in their provision of speech therapy services to PWS across the lifespan. Through considering the lived experiences and voices of PWS in the development and execution of speech therapy programs, speech-language pathologists can enhance their evidence-based treatment practices for this population by delivering intervention that PWS value.