Contemporary clinical conversations about stuttering: Neurodiversity and ableism.

Purpose: To discuss issues about neurodiversity and ableism, and how they pertain to clinical management of stuttering, with particular reference to early childhood stuttering.

Methods: During a webinar this year, the issue emerged of how concepts of neurodiversity and ableism apply to early childhood stuttering during the pre-school years. It became apparent that this topic elicited disparate views and would be of particular interest to students of speech-language pathology.

The good, the bad, and the ugly: Unpacking the pros and cons associated with change for adults who stutter.

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to document the pros and cons that adults who stutter may consider when deciding to change how they live with stuttering.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 adults who stutter and 12 speech-language pathologists who specialize in stuttering therapy. Participants were asked to identify and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of making a change to how they live with stuttering.

Meet Them Where They're At: Maximizing Adolescents' Engagement in Stuttering Therapy.

Adolescents who stutter often pose a unique clinical challenge for clinicians. They are a population simultaneously striving for independence from adults and social connection with their peers at a time when social fears surge and lifelong habits take root. It is a time when they may seem "unmotivated" to learn and utilize new communication or coping skills related to stuttering.

Examining the Effects of Stuttering and Social Anxiety on Interpretations of Ambiguous Social Scenarios Among Adolescents.

Purpose: The proclivity to construe ambiguous information in a negative way is known as interpretation bias, which has been implicated in the onset and/or maintenance of social anxiety. The purpose of this study was to examine group and individual differences in interpretation bias among young people who stutter and their typically fluent peers during the adolescent years when social fears and worries tend to escalate.

Methods: A total of 99 adolescents (13 to 19 years old) participated, including 48 adolescents who stutter (67% male) and 51 typically fluent controls (68% male).

Applying the Transtheoretical Model to Stuttering Management Among Adolescents: Part II. Exploratory Scale Validation.

Purpose This article is the second in a two-part series on the application of the to stuttering management among adolescents. The purpose of this article was to apply and explore the validity of newly developed Transtheoretical measures for adolescents who stutter. Method The online survey was completed by a national sample of 173 adolescents who stutter between the ages of 13 and 21 years.

Applying the Transtheoretical Model to Stuttering Management Among Adolescents: Part I. Scale Development.

Purpose This article is the first in a two-part series on the application of the to stuttering management among adolescents. In this article, we describe the process of developing measures to assess stage of change (SOC) by defining behaviors of stuttering management, as well as the two primary cognitive constructs that underlie one's readiness to make behavioral change: decisional balance (DB) and situational self-efficacy (SSE). This work hinges on the ability to develop an operational definition of what it means to successfully manage or do something positive about one's stuttering.

Temperament is Linked to Avoidant Responses to Stuttering Anticipation.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to examine the degree to which certain temperament constructs predict individual differences in three types of behavioral responses to anticipation among children and adults who stutter (CWS and AWS, respectively): avoidance, physical change, and approach.

Methods: Participants included 64 CWS (9- to 17-years-old) and 54 AWS (18- to 50-years-old) who completed an online survey package including a temperament questionnaire (Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-Revised for the CWS; Adult Temperament Questionnaire for the AWS) and the Stuttering Anticipation Scale. The data were analyzed separately for CWS and AWS using multivariate multiple regressions to assess how each temperament construct predicted avoidance, physical change, and approach responses to anticipation.

Attentional Bias Among Adolescents Who Stutter: Evidence for a Vigilance-Avoidance Effect.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine group and individual differences in attentional bias toward and away from socially threatening facial stimuli among adolescents who stutter and age- and sex-matched typically fluent controls. Method Participants included 86 adolescents (43 stuttering, 43 controls) ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. They completed a computerized dot-probe task, which was modified to allow for separate measurement of attentional engagement with and attentional disengagement from facial stimuli (angry, fearful, neutral expressions).

An exploratory factor analysis of action responses to stuttering anticipation.

Purpose: We previously introduced theStuttering Anticipation Scale (SAS; Jackson, E. S., Gerlach, H.

My Client Knows That He's About to Stutter: How Can We Address Stuttering Anticipation during Therapy with Young People Who Stutter?

Stuttering anticipation is endorsed by many people who stutter as a core aspect of the stuttering experience. Anticipation is primarily a covert phenomenon and people who stutter respond to anticipation in a variety of ways. At the same time as anticipation occurs and develops internally, for many individuals the "knowing" or "feeling" that they are about to stutter is a primary contributor to the chronicity of the disorder.