John F. Schmitt

Teachers' Perceptions of Stutterers.

A questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers (a typical 8-year-old female, 8-year-old male, adult female, and adult male stutterer) was completed by 103 elementary and secondary teachers. The majority of reported adjectives were negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating perceptions of stutterers similar toother groups, including speech-language pathologists. Implications of these findings and suggestions for pre-service and continuing education programs for teachers are discussed.

Speech-language pathologists' perceptions of child and adult female and male stutterers

Abstract A questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers (a typical adult male, adult female, 8-year-old male, and 8-year-old female stutterer) was completed by 81 speech-language pathologists. The large majority of reported adjectives were negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating that the perceptions of practicing speech-language pathologists concerning stutterers have remained relatively unchanged over the past two decades. Implications of these findings and suggestions for clinical training and professional services to stutterers are discussed.

Special educators' perceptions of stutterers

Abstract A questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers (a typical female child, male child, female adult, and male adult stutterer) was completed by 82 special educators in six states. The majority of reported adjectives were negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating descriptions of stutterers similar to other groups, including teachers and speech-language pathologists. Implications of these findings and suggestions for pre-service and continuing education programs for special educators are discussed.

Case Studies for Evaluating Statistical Significance in Group Designs

We present a tutorial for evaluating statistical significance in research reports when t, F, or X2 is the primary statistic. The article is intended to help speech-language pathologists evaluate re...

School Administrators' Perceptions of People Who Stutter

A questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers (a female child, male child, female adult, and male adult) was completed by 42 school administrators in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and West Virginia. The majority of reported adjectives were negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating perceptions of people who stutter similar to perceptions held by other groups, including teachers, special educators, and speech-language pathologists. Implications of these findings and suggestions for pre-service and continuing education programs for school administrators are discussed.

Conversational Speech Sampling in the Assessment of Articulation Proficiency.

The study was designed to collect preliminary data on Whole Word Accuracy (WWA), which is a method for assessing articulation proficiency in conversation. WWA scores and Arizona Articulation Profic...

The perceptions of stutterers by people who stutter

Twenty-five persons who stutter completed a questionnaire asking respondents to list adjectives describing four hypothetical stutterers: a female child, male child, female adult and male adult stutterer. The majority of reported adjectives concerned negative stereotypical personality traits, indicating descriptions of stutterers by a group of persons who stutter that were similar to descriptions given by fluent subject groups. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Health Educators' Knowledge of Hearing, Hearing Loss, and Hearing Health Practices

A questionnaire on hearing, hearing loss, and hearing health practices was constructed by the authors and completed by 89 school health educators in West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Results of their responses indicate some deficiencies in knowledge of hearing, hearing loss, and the effect of noise on hearing. Implications of these findings and suggestions for preservice and continuing education programs for school health educators are discussed.

Speech-Language Pathologists' Knowledge of, Exposure to, and Attitudes toward Hearing Aids and Hearing Aid Wearers.

A questionnaire concerned with various aspects of hearing aids was completed by 88 speech-language pathologists from West Virginia, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. Results of their responses indicate some deficiencies in knowledge, exposure, and attitudes concerning hearing aids and hearing aid wearers. Implications and suggestions for graduate education and continuing education programs are discussed.

Selected pragmatic features in Spanish-speaking preschool children.

We assessed Spanish-speaking preschool children for the development of seven language functions and three discourse features. Analyses consisted of spontaneous language samples averaging 136 utterances per child, for 18 subjects between 3:0 and 4:5 (years: months). Data for the frequency of occurrence and the percentage of appropriate usage showed that the preschoolers had established communicative competence for the functions and discourse features. Implications include establishing preliminary guidelines for the development of normal pragmatics in Hispanic preschoolers. We also discuss the 10-item taxonomy as a reliable and clinically useful tool with either English-speaking or Spanish-speaking children.