The impact of stuttering on quality of life of children and adolescents.

Background: Understanding the experience of people who stutter, both in and out treatment, will lead to improved outcomes.

Aim: To investigate how stuttering affects the quality of life of children and adolescents who stutter.

Method: The Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering--School-Age (OASES-S) was used to assess the impact of stuttering and the Fluency Profile Protocol was used to stuttering severity.

Results: These age groups do experience moderate negative impact as measured by the OASES-S. The results showed a tendency toward a positive correlation between severity and the impact of stuttering on quality of life.

Conclusion: A better understanding of the impact of stuttering in these age groups provides a needed guide for the development of stuttering treatments and treatment outcomes research.