Self-Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance of Children who Stutter

Preliminary Normative Data for the Turkish Form of the KiddyCAT

“…11 The premise of negative communication attitude is awareness about the communication/speaking competence of the person. 12 'Awareness', which is assumed to interact with the onset and development of stuttering, involves being partially or acutely aware of speech difficulties or stuttering. 13 Children begin to compare their competences with their peers and start to realize in what aspects they differ from their cohort in the preschool period.…”

“…9,[15][16][17][18] Awareness is the precondition for developing beliefs and attitudes, and is an integral part of attitude. 9,12 Once aware, preschool CWS evaluate their stuttering negatively and the time between awareness and negative attitude development during preschool ages is quite short. 9,19 It is also reported that "early conceptions of communicative abilities among CWS are influenced by their stuttering experiences and diverge from early communicative ability conceptions among their fluent peers".…”

“…They subsequently develop a belief in the competence of speech and communication that is mostly negative. 9,10,12,19 Such negative orientation towards one's own communication performance negatively affects the socialemotional development of an individual. 22 The time span between the emergence and recognition of stuttering is short, and the earlier stuttering is noticed, the earlier a negative attitude is bound to develop.…”

“…22 The time span between the emergence and recognition of stuttering is short, and the earlier stuttering is noticed, the earlier a negative attitude is bound to develop. 12,19,23 Revealing the communication attitude of individuals, one of the risk factors for persistent stuttering is a very determining and sensitive point in early stuttering management. 13,16,21,24 Ascertaining whether young CWS develop a negative attitude towards their speech plays a crucial role in assessment and therapy.…”