Ingrid M. Blood

Preliminary Study of Self-Reported Experience of Physical Aggression and Bullying of Boys Who Stutter: Relation to Increased Anxiety:

This study examined the relationship of self-reported anxiety and vulnerability to bullying for 18 children who stuttered and 18 children who did not stutter. More children who stuttered were at significantly higher risk of experiencing bullying behavior (61%) than children who did not stutter (22%); 39% of children who stuttered scored at least one standard deviation above the mean on the Revised Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale, suggestive of higher anxiety. In contrast, only 6% of children who did not stutter scored at least one standard deviation above the mean. The correlation was .82 for children who stuttered between greater vulnerability to bullying and self-reported anxiety. A bidirectional relationship is hypothesized between high anxiety and bullying of children who stutter.

Communication apprehension and self-perceived communication competence in adolescents who stutter

The purpose of this study was to examine the communication apprehension and self-perceived communication competence of 39 adolescents who stutter and 39 adolescents who do not stutter using two standardized communication measures. Significantly higher levels of communication apprehension and poorer scores on self-perceived communication competence were found in adolescents who stutter when compared with adolescents who do not stutter. Subscore test data revealed that adolescents who stutter had significantly greater fears about speaking in Group Discussions and Interpersonal Conversations than they had about Public Speaking and talking during Meetings, when compared with students who do not stutter. They also had significantly poorer perceptions about their own communication competence on the Talking to Strangers subscore test when compared with students who do not stutter. A significant positive relationship among stuttering severity, communication apprehension, and self-perceived communication competence total scores was found. Students who stutter severely had greater fears about speaking in group discussions and interpersonal conversations. Implications for stuttering therapy and the need for specifically addressing communication apprehension in treatment sessions are discussed. Educational objectives: (1) The reader will learn about communication apprehension and fear in people who stutter and be able to describe different types of responses to these fears. (2) The reader will be able to learn about commercially available instruments for testing communication apprehension and compare differences between adolescents who stutter and who do not stutter. (3) The reader will be able to describe and explain the relationship between communication apprehension and stuttering and determine its impact on stuttering and resulting treatment decisions.

Self-Reported Experience of Bullying of Students Who Stutter: Relations with Life Satisfaction, Life Orientation, and Self-Esteem

Self-reported self-esteem, life orientation, satisfaction with life, and bullying were examined in relation to victimization experiences among 54 students who stuttered and 54 students who did not stutter. Those who stuttered reported greater, i.e., clinically significant, victimization (44.4%) than students who did not stutter (9.2%). Significant differences were found between means for self-esteem and life orientation, with students who stuttered reporting lower self-esteem and less optimistic life orientation than those who did not stutter. In both groups of students, high victimization scores had statistically significant negative correlations with optimistic life orientation, high self-esteem, and high satisfaction with life scores. Given the increased likelihood of students who stuttered being bullied, the negative relation of adjustment variables and bullying, and the potentially negative long-term effects of bullying, increased vigilance and early intervention are discussed.

Effects of perceived causality on perceptions of persons who stutter.

UNLABELLED This study examined the effects of the perceived cause of stuttering on perceptions of persons who stutter (PWS) using a 7-item social distance scale, a 25-item adjective pair scale and a 2-item visual analogue scale. Two hundred and four university students rated vignettes which varied on describing a PWS with different causalities for stuttering (psychological, genetic, or unknown). Ratings differed significantly according to assigned causality. The vignette with the stuttering due to psychological causes was rated more negatively on 14 adjective pairs and the Social Distance Scale Index when compared to the ratings of vignettes with stuttering caused by either genetic or unknown causes. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between ratings of the vignettes attributing stuttering to either genetic or unknown causes. Neither familiarity with PWS nor the perceived curability of stuttering had any significant association to the ratings. Implications of findings regarding negative stereotypes, stigmatization and perceived causality for PWS are discussed. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES Readers will be able to describe and explain: (1) research regarding negative stereotypes and stigma associated with stuttering, (2) research about attribution theory and stigma, (3) two methods used to evaluate stereotypes and stigma in adults, and (4) the negative effects on ratings of PWS due to psychological causality.

Word recognition skills of children and adults in background noise

This study compared the word recognition performance of 4 to 6 year old children and adults on the Word Intelligibility by Picture Identification (WIPI) Test presented via sound field in quiet and in a background of multitalker noise and pink noise. Although the adults had no difficulty recognizing speech in all situations, the children performed significantly poorer in both noise conditions. Furthermore, the multitalker noise proved to be more adverse than the pink noise on speech discrimination.

The effect of otitis media and quality of daycare on children's language development

The objective of this study was to understand whether experience with otitis media (OM) early in life affected hearing levels of children as well as whether it affected the language development of children at 24 months of age. This study followed 67 daycare-attending infants for several years, performing weekly ear examinations by a nurse and physician and regular hearing testing. The Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) was administered to all children at 24 months of age. Children were divided into chronic and non-chronic OM groups. In addition, half the children were in high quality daycare and half were in low quality daycare. Results suggested that children in low quality daycare with chronic OM performed more poorly on the expressive portion of the SICD in comparison to non-chronic children in low quality care. There were no differences on SICD performance for the OM groups in high quality care. Children with chronic OM also showed a hearing loss during episodes of OM while children with non-chronic or infrequent episodes did not show a hearing loss even during bouts of OM. Findings suggest that chronic OM may have adverse effects only when there is a hearing loss associated with OM and children are in a suboptimal environment, like low quality childcare.

Relationship between stuttering severity and brainstem-evoked response testing.

Brainstem-evoked-response testing was performed on 8 adult stutterers and 8 non-stutterers. Stutterers demonstrated prolonged central conduction time as measured by the interpeak latency (IPL) differences between Waves I to V. Five of the stutterers manifested abnormalities unilaterally, while three of the subjects showed abnormal responses bilaterally. No relationship was found between brainstem-evoked-response testing and severity of stuttering.

Central auditory function in young stutterers.

16 stutterers and 16 nonstutterers between the ages of 8 and 11 yr. were administered a battery of central auditory processing tests. The six audiological tests evaluated a range of auditory functions. Analysis indicated no significant differences between the two groups; however, inspection of the data showed 6 of the stuttering subjects performed consistently more poorly on four of the tests than the nonstuttering subjects. Results are discussed in relationship to subgroups of stutterers with auditory problems.

Fluent and disfluent normal speakers' responses on a Synthetic Sentence Identification (SSI) task.

This study attempted to confirm the theory that central auditory processing deficits exist in the normally disfluent population. Forty adults, 20 males, and 20 females were administered the Synthetic Sentence Identification-Ipsilateral Competing Message (SSI-ICM) at -20 dB message-to-competition ratios. Results revealed a significant difference between the performance of fluent and disfluent normal speakers. No significant differences were found between ears or between male and female subjects. Discussion includes comparative data analyses with a previous study and implications for further research.

Simultaneous and staggered dichotic word and digit tests with stutterers and nonstutterers

Abstract The present study compared the performance of stuttering adults and matched controls on the Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) test and three experimental digit tests—Two Pair Digit—TPD, Staggered Digits Simultaneous—SDS, and Staggered Digits Offset—SDO. Results indicated differences between stuttering and nonstuttering group mean values on the left ear scores of the TPD test, and on the numbers of reversals on both the SDS and SDO tests. The SSW, SDS, and SDO tests were all found to produce similar results in both stutteres and nonstutterers. However, the numbers of reversals on the SDS and SDO tests were significantly greater than those observed on the SSW test for both groups. Finally, the TPD test was found to be significantly more difficult for both groups than either of the other two experimental tests (i.e., SDS and SDO). These results are discussed in terms of similarity and differences with other dichotic listening studies. Limitations of the study and implications for further research are also presented.