School adjustment in children who stutter: The quality of the student-teacher relationship, peer relationships, and children’s academic and behavioral competence

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of the student-teacher relationship, peer relationship, emotional and behavioral outcomes and academic performance in school adjustment of children who stutter. Methods: The convenience sample consisted of 536 children -62 affected by stuttering and 474 in the control groupand 36 prevalent teachers from six primary and secondary schools in Northwest Italy. Children were assessed with a sociometric questionnaire. Teacher evaluations were also used to assess their perception of their relationships with the student (Student-Teacher Relationship Scale), children' behavior (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and children's academic competence. Chi-squared tests, t tests, bivariate correlations, and Multivariate Analysis of Variances (MANOVAs) controlling for the students' social status in the peer group were used to analyze the data. Results: The chi-squared test showed that children who stutter were more unpopular and rejected by peers than expected. The results of several MANOVA 2 (presence of stuttering in children) × 5 (students' social status in the peer group) tests performed on study variables showed greater difficulty on the teacher's part to establish a relationship based on affective closeness with mainstream students that are unpopular and rejected by classmates, but not with children who stutters. Children who stutter also showed high levels in Hyperactivity and low academic outcomes. Conclusions: Findings suggest to teachers the need to meditate on school well-being of children who stutter in order improve their social inclusion in the classmates group, and provide researchers with an in-depth knowledge about the effect of stuttering on children's school adjustment. The student-teacher relationship quality in students who stutter StutteringStuttering is a complex and multifaceted developmental disorder within which linguistic, speech-motor, physiological, cognitive, and emotional factors all play significant roles (e.g., Conture & Walden, 2012). Common symptoms of stuttering are recurrent prolongations, reverberations, or blocks of sounds, syllables, phrases, or words, while simultaneous manifestations can include facial grimacing, tremors of muscles used in speech, and eye blinks, in addition to the evasion of words or circumstances that aggravate stuttering episodes (Maguire, Yeh, & Ito, 2012).Around 5% of children are affected by stuttering, also known as childhood-onset fluency disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) or stammering. Overall, approximately 80-90% of stuttering starts at the age of 6 (Maguire et al., 2012), with an average age at onset of 30-36 months and a lifetime incidence of 5-8% (Erdemir, Walden, Jefferson, Choi, & Jones, 2018).Repeated communicative difficulties can have a negative influence on the lives of children who stutter (CWS;McAllister, 2016). CWS often appear to be shy, introverted, and not outgoing, as a result of the fear of being mocked by others, and they may be victims of aggression as a

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Non-pharmacological interventions for stuttering in children six years and younger

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Awareness and Knowledge of Stuttering among Malaysian School-Aged Children: An Exploratory Study

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