A comparative investigation of the speech-associated attitude of preschool and kindergarten children who do and do not stutter

The data of recent research studies have shown that by 3 years of age children show an awareness of dysfluency and that by at least the age of six, youngsters who stutter have a speech-associated attitude that is more negative than that of their peers. These findings led to the present study in which the KiddyCAT, a self-report measure, was used to compare the attitude toward speech of 45 children, between the age of three and six, who stuttered with that of 63 who did not. The data of this investigation showed that, as a group, the preschool and kindergarten children who stuttered had significantly more in the way of a negative attitude toward their speech than was found among their nonstuttering peers of the same age and gender. This finding is not consistent with the classically held position that the reactive aspects of stuttering do not generally develop until well after its onset. It suggests the need to measure, by standardized means, the speech-associated attitude of incipient stutterers and, when appropriate, to make the assessment and treatment of negative attitude toward speech a meaningful aspect of therapy.

Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) describe the difference in the speech-associated attitude of preschoolers and kindergartners who do and do not stutter; (2) summarize what we currently know about self-report tests used to assess speech-related attitude among children as young as 3; and (3) evaluate the usefulness of assessing the belief system of children whose fluency is considered problematic.