Journal of Fluency Disorders最新文献

Purpose

This study aims to develop a short Japanese version of the Self-Stigma of Stuttering Scale (4S), which assesses the self-stigma of adults who stutter (AWS) in a self-completed form, and evaluate its psychometric properties and reliability and validity.

Methods

After translating the original 4S scale into Japanese (4S-J) through a forward-backward translation process, it was administered to 123 Japanese adults who stutter. A short version of the 4S-J was developed through factor analysis and eliminating items with low loadings to original factors. Reliability was verified by calculating internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Participants also completed the Japanese-translated version of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Subjective Happiness Scale to verify construct validity. As a secondary analysis, our results regarding psychological properties of the short version of the 4S were then compared to those of studies from other countries.

Results

Sixteen items were selected for the short version of the scale (4S-J-16), and confirmatory factor analysis verified the original structure of the 4S. We obtained good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Regarding construct validity, our results showed similar correlation with the other selected scales. The value of all scores on the stigma scale in the Japanese cohort was significantly higher than that in the foreign cohort.

Conclusions

Overall, the 4S-J-16 has good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity with a three-factor structure of self-stigma in Japanese AWS. The findings suggest that Japanese cultural background increases the stigma scores, thereby enabling us to briefly assess the psychosocial issues of AWS.

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. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to generate multilevel themes.

Results

Meaningful units were extracted from interview transcripts to develop 37 discrete pros and 15 discrete cons. The pros of change clustered into five organizing themes: enriching one’s social relationships, feeling better in social interactions, developing a healthier sense of self, gaining autonomy, and communicating easier. The cons of change clustered into three organizing themes: experiencing discomfort, expending resources, and recognizing that some things may not change.

Conclusion

This study documented why adults who stutter may or may not seek change. Identifying the pros and cons of behavior change is an important step in understanding why some clients who stutter are ambivalent about, or resistant to, the therapeutic process.

Purpose

Caring for a child who stutters can impose excessive pressure on parents. Caregiver burden affects many aspects of parents' lives. Paying attention to parents in the treatment of children who stutter (CWS) is important because parents play a key role in the treatment of CWS. The aim of the study was to develop the Caregiver Burden Scale for Parents of Children Who Stutter (CBS-PCWS) and investigate the psychometric properties of the CBS-PCWS.

Method

The CBS-PCWS was developed using interviews with 15 parents of CWS and a literature review. The content validity, face validity, construct validity using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and reliability of the CBS-PCWS were investigated. The content validity was evaluated using 10 experts’ opinions. Face validity was determined using interviews with 10 parents of CWS. The reliability of the CBS-PCWS was evaluated through internal consistency and test-retest reliability.

Results

The scale development resulted in the creation of 137 items. During an expert panel with the presence of the research team, 51 similar items were eliminated. During the qualitative content validity stage, nine items were added to the initial scale. After determining the content and face validity, the number of CBS-PCWS items was reduced to 52 items. In the construct validity stage using EFA with responses from 364 parents, eight items of the CBS-PCWS were removed due to low factor loadings. The results of the EFA indicated that the CBS-PCWS contained five factors: psychological and emotional, personal and physical, support for caregiving, culpability, and socio-communicative. The Cronbach's alpha values of the scale domains were in the 0.78–0.94 range. In addition, the ICC test-retest coefficient for the total score of the CBS-PCWS was 0.93 and for its domains was in 0.91–0.99 range.

Conclusion

The CBS-PCWS has 44 items with five domains and is a valid and reliable scale that can be used for clinical or research purposes. More studies are required to evaluate further psychometric properties of the CBS-PCWS.

Discovering developmental stuttering’s biological explanation has been an enduring concern. Novel advances in genomics and neuroscience are making it possible to isolate and pinpoint genetic and brain differences implicated in stuttering. This is giving rise to a hope that, in the future, dysfluency could be better managed if stuttering’s biological basis could be better understood. Concurrent to this, there is another hope rising: a hope of a future where differing fluencies would not be viewed through a reductive lens of biology and associated pathologies. The central aim of this paper is to edge out ethical implications of novel research into stuttering’s biological explanation. In doing so, the paper proposes to look beyond the bifurcation sketched by the medical and social model of disability. The paper demonstrates how the scientific hope of discovering stuttering’s biological explanation acts as an accessory of disablement due to the language of ‘lack’ and ‘deficit’ employed in reporting scientific findings and proposes participatory research with people who stutter as an antidote to manage this disablement.

Background

Stuttering is a disorder that begins in childhood and can persist into adulthood. In the present study, it was hypothesized that the combined intervention of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) would cause greater improvement in speech fluency in comparison to the intervention with DAF alone.

Methods

A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial was conducted to investigate the effects of the combined intervention. Fifty adults with moderate to severe stuttering (25 females, 25 males, Mean age=26.92, SD=6.23) were randomly allocated to the anodal or sham tDCS group. In the anodal tDCS group, participants received DAF combined with anodal tDCS (1 mA), while the sham tDCS group was exposed to sham tDCS simultaneously with DAF. In this study, a 60-ms delay was used for DAF intervention, and tDCS was applied over the left superior temporal gyrus. Each individual participated in six 20-minute intervention sessions (held on six consecutive days). Speech fluency was assessed before and after the intervention.

Results

In the anodal tDCS group, the scores of the Stuttering Severity Instrument, Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering questionnaire, and the percentage of stuttered syllable reduced significantly (from average baseline rates of 8.45%, across three tasks, to 5.36% at the follow-up assessment) after the intervention.

Conclusion

The results of this study suggest that delivery of anodal tDCS when combined with DAF may enhance stuttering reduction effects for six weeks following the intervention.