Journal Article

Peer Responses to Stuttering in the Preschool Setting

Packman, Ann, Onslow, Mark, Langevin, Marilyn

2009

Overview

Contact author: Marilyn Langevin, who is now at the Institute for Stuttering Treatment & Research, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, 1500, 8215–112 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2C8, Canada. E-mail: marilyn.langevin{at}ualberta.ca . Purpose: This study investigated peer responses to preschoolers' stuttering in preschool and sought to determine whether specific characteristics of participants' stuttering patterns elicited negative peer responses. Method: Four outdoor free-play sessions of 4 preschoolers age 3–4 years who stutter were videotaped. Stutters were identified on transcripts of the play sessions. Peer responses to stuttered utterances were judged to be negative or neutral/positive. Thereafter, participants' stuttering behaviors, durations of stutters, and judgments of the meaningfulness of peer-directed stuttered utterances were analyzed. Results: Between 71.4% and 100% of peer responses were judged to be neutral/positive. In the negative responses across 3 participants, peers were observed to react with confusion or to interrupt, mock, walk away from, or ignore the stuttered utterances. Utterances that elicited negative responses were typically meaningless and contained stutters that were behaviorally complex and/or of longer duration. Other social interaction difficulties also were observed—for example, difficulty leading peers in play, participating in pretend play, and resolving conflicts. Conclusions: Results indicate that the majority of peer responses to stuttered utterances were neutral/positive; however, results also indicate that stuttering has the potential to elicit negative peer responses and affect other social interactions in preschool. Key Words: stuttering, child, preschool, peer responses, interpersonal relations CiteULike     Connotea     Del.icio.us     Digg     Facebook     Reddit     Technorati     Twitter     What's this?

• Publisher: ASHA,American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subject: Care and treatment / Child, Preschool / Children & youth / Coding / Communicative Competence (Languages) / Confusion / Faculty / Female / Group Activities / Humans / Interaction / Interpersonal Behavior / Interpersonal Communication / Interpersonal Competence / Interpersonal relations in children / Interpersonal Relationship / Interpersonal Relationships / Language Impairments / Male / Negative Attitudes / Observation / Parent Surveys / Parents & parenting / Peer Group / Peer Groups / Peer Relationship / Peer relationships / Peers / Physiological aspects / Play and Playthings / Preschool Children / Pretend play / Psycholinguistics / Psychological aspects / Schools / Social aspects / Social Behavior / Social Influences / Social interaction / Social response / Speech / Speech disorders / Speech duration / Speech Production Measurement / Student Reaction / Stuttering / Teaching Methods / Time Factors / Utterances / Video Technology