Awareness of stuttering in Japanese children aged 3-7 years

Caregiver Predictions of Their 3- to 6-Year-Old Child Who Stutters' Communication Attitude

PURPOSE

Caregivers share critical insight during their child's stuttering evaluation; yet, there have been no empirical studies evaluating whether caregivers provide similar accounts of their 3- to 6-year-old child's communication attitude compared to their child's self-report. This study examined caregiver- and child-reported communication attitude and assessed potential moderators of more comparable caregiver and child ratings (i.e., caregiver confidence, caregiver-child conflict, observer-rated stuttering severity).

METHOD

One hundred thirteen children who stutter ages 3 through 6 years and a primary caregiver were recruited from clinical settings across the United States. Children completed the Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children Who Stutter (KiddyCAT) and three speaking samples, which were recorded to assess observer-rated stuttering severity using the Stuttering Severity Instrument-Fourth Edition. Caregivers predicted their child's communication attitude (C-KiddyCAT) and provided a confidence rating for their prediction. Caregivers also rated caregiver-child conflict using the Child-Parent Relationship Scale-Short Form (CPRS-SF). Multiple regression was used to (a) evaluate whether caregiver C-KiddyCAT scores predicted child KiddyCAT scores and (b) assess potential moderators of the relationship between C-KiddyCAT and KiddyCAT scores.

RESULTS

Caregiver ratings of their child's communication attitude (C-KiddyCAT) predicted child communication attitude ratings (KiddyCAT). A significant interaction between caregiver-child conflict (CPRS-SF) and caregiver ratings of their child's communication attitude (C-KiddyCAT) suggested caregiver-child conflict changed the underlying relationship between C-KiddyCAT and KiddyCAT scores, such that low conflict resulted in more similar C-KiddyCAT and KiddyCAT scores. Neither caregiver confidence nor observer-rated stuttering severity influenced the relationship between C-KiddyCAT and KiddyCAT scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Although many caregivers predicted communication attitude ratings that closely aligned with their child's report, some caregiver-child dyads provided divergent ratings. Clinicians should interpret caregiver predictions of their child's communication attitude within the context of their full evaluation and the caregiver-child relationship. Assessing both self-reported communication attitude and caregiver predictions of their child's communication attitude provides a meaningful starting point to counseling caregivers about cognitive components of stuttering for preschool- and kindergarten-age children who stutter.

An experiment on measuring awareness of stuttering in individuals with Down syndrome

BACKGROUND

Awareness of stuttering is likely to depend upon the development of the metalinguistic skill to discriminate between fluent speech and stuttering and the ability to identify one's own speech as fluent or stuttered. Presently, little is known about these abilities in individuals with Down syndrome (DS).

PURPOSE

This study investigates whether individuals with DS and typically developing (TD) children who stutter and who do not stutter differ in their ability to discriminate between fluent speech and stuttering. The second purpose of this study is to discover if this ability is correlated with their self-identification ability.

METHOD

An experiment to investigate awareness with tasks for discrimination of stuttering and self-identification was developed. It was administered to 28 individuals (7-19 years) with DS, 17 of them stutter and 11 do not, and 20 TD children (3-10 years), 8 of them stutter and 12 do not. Skills to discriminate stuttering were compared between these groups and correlated with self-identification within these groups. The influence of stuttering severity and developmental/chronological age on their ability to discriminate was also investigated.

RESULTS

The ability to discriminate does not differ significantly between the DS and TD group, but is highly influenced by developmental age. This ability correlates with self-identification but only for the TD individuals who speak fluently.

CONCLUSION

The ability to discriminate matures around the age of 7 and conscious awareness may rely on this ability. Differences between the present findings and earlier studies suggest that differentiation in levels and types of awareness is warranted.