| l HHHMIWIM\HllJflhHflIIUW W WI law—A Imo l Imp-co \ l THESIS |IIIIIIIIIIIII||IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII II IIIIIIIIIIIIII 31293 00885 9989 This is to certify that the thesis entitled THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTRUCTION 0N NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS 0F STUTTERERS presented by Laurel Marlene Grimes has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for ILA degree in Audiology. E Speech Sciences Bodega Major professor Paul A. Cooke Jl,1,1 Date uy 5 993 0-7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution I I LIBRARY Michigan State University PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. TO AVOID FINES return on or before date due. r————_—__—._——_.——————_—u_—————— DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE MSU Is An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution cMcMnmS-e.‘ THE INPACT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTRUCTION ON NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS OP STUTTBRERS BY Laurel Marlene Grimes A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirenents for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Departnent of Audiology and Speech Sciences 1993 ABSTRACT ’ THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL ON NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS OP STUTTERERS BY Laurel Marlene Grimes The purpose of this study was to determine if negative perceptions of stutterers could be made more positive through the use of educational material. This study involved 68 undergraduate students majoring in speech-language pathology. They were randomly divided into 3 groups, whereby each group saw a different video tape. Group I viewed material neutral to the topic of stuttering. Group II saw general lecture material about stuttering. Group III viewed personal stories about stutterers. A bi-polar adjective scale was used to record subjects' perceptions of stutterers both before and after the video was shown. The 25 item scale was summarized to 3 dimensions according to statements that were similar in content. Analysis of variance revealed that typical lecture material given to students created some increase in negative perceptions while viewing personal stories about stutterers created the greatest amount of positive change. DEDICATION This work is dedicated to all the special children, who have taught me to always have hope. Hay theirs be a world that sees through their disabilities and values them for their abilities. iii ACKNOILEDGEMENTS Dr. Paul Cooke, that patron saint of speech-language pathology, for his patience, support, expertise and dedication to his field. He is an inspiration to all who meet him. I was truly blessed to complete this research under his guidance. Dr. Janet Patterson, for being a role-model of excellence for women in speech-language pathology, and for her support and input to this project. Dr. Brad Rakerd, for sharing his vast store of statistical knowledge and supplies, and for his support and input to this project. Mrs. Deborah Redfearn, for her constant encouragement and belief that I would be here some day. For introducing me to the importance of ”sitting on both sides of the table". To Dr. Leo Deal, for his valuable time and expertise in contributing to this project. To my father, George Grimes, for introducing me to academics and for his multi-faceted support in my pursuit of my Master degree. To my mother, Marlene Babb, who taught me to be tolerant, the most valuable quality I know of. For her generosity and.belief that I can do anything I want to with a little strength. To my sisters, Beth and Kathryn, the ones who always believed and understood, for raising me so well. Their love, support and generosity enabled me to be where I am today. To Michael, for trusting and learning that we are worth it. For knowing that we will have much more than we were given. Most of all, for listening. Finally, for Paul, Bernie, Jim, Dan, Kelly, Amjad, Bob, Tim and all the others in the fluency group. The credit for many ideas in this study theirs. May they continue to work and believe that our disabilities only define us if we allow it. For all the countless others who advised, listened and cared. Every contribution is reflected in the attainment of this dream. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS nnercarron............................................. iii acxnowrnnosnsnws....................................... iv LIST or TABLES ........................................ vi LIST or 2160333 ....................................... vii CHAPTER 1. ImODUCTIONOO......OOOOOOOOOOO0.000000...O. 1 Background ............. ..... .. ............ . ....... 1 Literature Review . ........ ....... ......... . ....... 5 Summary ........................................... 27 Purpose of Study .. ........... .. ........ ........... 30 Hypotheses ...... ...... . ........ . ................. . 31 CHAPTER 2 C muons O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 32 Subjects ....... ................................... 32 Procedures ... ...... .... ........................... 32 Questionnaire ........ ................ ............ . 34 Data Reduction/Statistical Analysis ............... 35 CHAPTER 3 0 RESULTS 0 O O C O C O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 38 mm ‘ 0 DISCUSSION. 0 O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O ‘5 Conclusions ............ . ........................... 45 Implications for future research .................. . 51 APPENDIX A: BI-POLAR QUESTIONNAIRE .................... 55 APPENDIX B: PRE- AND POST-VIDEO SCORES OF EACH SUBJECT 'ITHIN TYPES 1' 2' m3 ......O........... 57 REFERENCES .000......I.......OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......O0.00.060 Table LIST OF TABLES Page Questionnaire items arranged according to Types ......OOOOOOOC ......... ......O............ 37 Means, standard deviations (in parentheses) and differences between pre- and post-video scores across the three types for each group .......................................... 40 Analysis of variance summary table for the two-factor design for each of the three types ..... ..... . ............... . ..... .... ..... . 41 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Amount of change (positive or negative) between pre- and post-video across the 3 types and the 3 groups ..... ... .......... 44 vii CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION Background Stereotyping is a phenomenon that impacts the Lives of all people. Every interaction in daily life is affected by pre-conceived notions held about the people and situations dealt with throughout the course of our lives. Stereotypes are often relied upon to structure interactions, by lending a context to the unfamiliar situations that arise constantly. Unfortunately, stereotypes are often acquired second hand, through sources such as the media and the observations of others, instead of our personal experience with the subject of scrutiny. This is how stereotypes become dangerous and often damaging to people. When a particular group of people are categorized by certain characteristics, their unique experiences regarding their individuality are diminished. It is easier to rely upon our accumulated store of knowledge of a broad group of people instead of discovering what individual characteristics separate persons from each other within a group. It is most dangerous when people who have power to have a significant impact.onmothers lives rely on these stereotypes to define those around them. They then focus on the generalities commonly believed about these groups and are reluctant to observe other characteristics individuals have (Allport, 1954; Baird & Rosenbaum, 1992; Bettleheim & Janowitz, 1964). 2 The people who make decisions about who can achieve, who is worthy of privileges and who matters can have a powerful impact of the lives on everyone who is a part of a categorized group. Since everyone is a member of some identifiable category, this impacts everyone, whether they are aware of it or not. It is for this reason that it is crucial to make all people aware of stereotyping and the affect it has on their lives as well as the lives of those around them. Many characteristics have been commonly used to stereotype people, such as age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, physical characteristics or political preference. Handicappers have been a vocal group in educating people about the abilities of "challenged" people, as opposed to the disabilities, which are more often focused on by the general public. Their efforts have raised the level of awareness of the danger of stereotypes in society and have broken many barriers that were built by individuals who were frightened by the differences handicappers represent. Individuals that have communication disorders are the targets of the same type of prejudices commonly held about handicappers in general. It is especially difficult to educate society when your power of communication has been impaired, for communication is the primary means of education. The inability to communicate effectively can have a life-long impact on the personal and professional relationships communicatively disabled individuals strive to have. 3 Communicatively disabled people are often subjected to the stereotype of being unintelligent because they cannot express their ideas and thoughts as eloquently as others. This begins to impact these people as children and remains to be a factor throughout their lives. It is common for the negative self- image held by many communicatively disordered people to persist long after the disability has been remediated effectively, because of the negative messages given to them at a time when their disorder was more evident. For those people who have had life-long communication disorders the stereotypes they are subjected to in the classroom often carries over to the adult work place and into personal relationships. Most often the negative messages given these individuals by our society impacts many aspects of their lives. Stutterers are one group of individuals that are affected by the negative stereotypes mentioned above. Stuttering is a handicapping condition that is often invisible to society as a whole because 'many stutterers find ‘their attempts at communicating so humiliating that they speak as little as possible. Often their personality is shaped by the negative feedback they have had surrounding attempts at communication. Society as a whole is then left to form their opinions of stutterers through the media, such as comical or degrading portrayals of stutterers in films or from the brief interaction they may have had when a stutterer was struggling to communicate. Teachers may often avoid communicating with 4 a stutterer because of their own discomfort about the situation, which can have adverse effects on their education. Professionals may not want to hire stutterers because of stereotypes they hold about the intelligence of the stutterer. These are barriers that many stutterers will confront throughout their lives. The.question.remains to be: How can we educate the general public to reduce these stereotypes? Acknowledging that stereotypes exist is the first and most crucial step to changing them. Stereotypes are perpetuated in society by the ignorant passing of stereotypes from one generation to the next. In this way stereotypes are accepted as truth because they have not been appropriately challenged. It is important to identify the characteristics of stereotypes so people are aware of their own bias and can monitor themselves. Individuals need to meet the object of the stereotypes and observe their individual differences to see that stereotypes are not based in reality. They need to be given information about the group being discriminated against to counterbalance the misinformation they may already have. Most importantly, they need to understand the damage that stereotypes can do to all people, including themselves. It is not until someone can see a vulnerability within themselves that a person can understand the necessity of protecting all people from this potential danger. When *we examine: the complexities of stereotypes it becomes evident that changing them is not something easily S accomplished. There are many methods of educating people about these issues, through literature (pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, books) , the media (movies, documentaries, talk shows), visual aides (videotapes, public service announcements) or personal instruction (in services, workshops). Each of these methods of education have strong and weak points, but the key factor is the organization and quality of the presentation. Although literature is very accessible and.does not require much time on the readers part, it may be easily dismissed and often does not leave a strong impression. ‘Visual aides are more likely to hold the receivers attention and demonstrate the issues more vividly, but lack the personal interaction that increases retention on the receiversrpart and.answers.questions. Personally given information is an effective method of education because it has the potential to completely involve the listener in all modalities. It can be as accessible as literature and also aide the listener in visualizing the issues. It allows the listener to observe the source of information and may allow opportunities to actually experience the subject matter in a practical sense. An issue as complex as the implications of stereotyping needs to be addressed using all possible means of communicating the message (Biard & Rosenbaum, 1992). Literature Review The original investigation examining attitudes toward 6 stuttering was McDonald and Frick’s (1954) study in which store clerks' reaction to stutterers were measured. This was the first time a research format was used to investigate how stereotypes held by others can effect stutterers. The purpose of the study was to determine levels of knowledge held by store clerks, being a group more typical of the general public than most subjects used in research. A list of probable reactions to stutterers was gathered by exposing a group of communication disorders students to a 3 minute audio tape of a severe stutterer and then having them write down their reactions. From these reactions a 25 item questionnaire was formulated and divided into 8 categories according to the type of feeling the items alluded to: surprise, embarrassment, impatience, pity, amusement, curiosity, sympathy and repulsion. Fifty store clerks were approached by a stutterer who produced a severe stuttering block while asking a question. After the stutterer left the situation a trained questioner quizzed the store clerk on their reactions to ‘the stutterer. Feelings of surprise, embarrassment, pity, curiosity and sympathy were experienced by the listener with varying degrees of frequency. In addition, the data indicated that feelings of impatience, repulsion and amusement were encountered only rarely by the stutterer. This study was significant for many reasons. It was one of the only studies to actually observe the reactions of the 7 public to a stutterer. Therefore it did not deal as much with stereotypes as authentic automatic reactions. Most studies done since have posed a hypothetical stutterer to the! subject, as contrasted to actual interaction to a stutterer. This deals more in long term stereotypes held. One significant finding of McDonald & Frick's (1958) study was that many people did not know what disorder the stutterer had. The authors state that this points to a great need for a continuing program of public education. Woods and Williams study (1976) concluded that a strong stereotype of stutterer's personality characteristics does exist and these stereotypes are predominantly unfavorable. This study examined the stereotypes held by seven groups of individuals: adult stutterers, parents of stuttering children, parents of children with non-stuttering speech problems, parents of normally speaking children, elementary grade classroom teachers, public school speech clinicians and college students. These subjects were asked to rate four hypothetical concepts (typical eight year old male, typical eight year old male stutterer, typical adult male, typical adult male stutterer) on 25 adjective scales. The adjective scale was derived from words previously found by speech clinicians as descriptive of stutterers and antonyms of those words. The three significant factors examined to obtain results were speech, age and groups. On 23 out of the 25 scales, speech (whether the person was a stutterer or a non-stutterer) was 8 found to be notable in the judgments of the raters. The age factor was influential due to differing expectation of the communicative abilities of boys and men, with-higher expectations applied to the men. Within the rater groups examined, significant.differenceS‘were found among five of the groups. These differences were largely due to the extreme rating of college students, speech pathologists and classroom teachers. All three of these groups rated stutterers and non- stutterers at extreme ends of the adjectival continuum from each other. Ratings of the other four groups were more moderately polarized. A significant finding of the group interaction was that speech pathologists rated the stuttering boy to be most like the non-stuttering boy and classroom teachers rated the stuttering boy to be most unlike the stuttering boy. In all cases, the stuttering male was found to have 95% of undesirable personality characteristics. The data reported by this study suggests that many people expect a stutterer to be different than a non-stutterer in certain undesirable ways. Woods and Williams comment in their discussion that "such a pervasive stereotype may well have a powerful influence on the stutterers self-evaluations and actions." The 1981 study by Turnbaugh, Guitar and Hoffman examined how personality traits were attributed to stutterers based on multiple factors. In Part I of the study, audio and video tapes were presented and the differences in the listener’s 9 reaction were noted. The impact of the stutterer's secondary versus primary stuttering characteristics on the listener’s reaction to a stutterer was examined. Also analyzed were the assignment of personality traits to a fluent person who was labeled as a stutterer for the purposes of the study. Part II of this study carried the idea of the "hypothetical stutterer" one step further by examining reactions to actual stutterers. These two variables were then compared pertaining to the assignment of personality characteristics. The subjects in ‘Part I consisted of six groups of independent college students, who were selected based oniavailabilityx Each.group listened to a different recording and watched a different videotape, being informed only that it was an interview with a 28 year-old male. The test instrument used to gauge their reactions was a modified version of the bipolar adjective scale devised by Woods and Williams (1976). The subjects of Part II of the experiment were two independent groups of 18 college students. Group I was asked to rate the ”typical individual.who stutters" and.Group II was asked to:rate the "typical individual who is normally fluent". The test instrument used in Part I was also used in this part of the experiment. In Part I it was found that subjects assigned personality traits similarly whether the stutterer was presented with an audio or video tape or whether the stutterer exhibited primary, secondary or no stuttering behaviors. Part II revealed that personality stereotypes 10 differed significantly from those of non-stutterers. These differences were found to be largely negative. Although Part I of this study did not reveal significant differences in personality trait assignment based on the experimental variables, Part II indicated that there were definite negative stereotypes held on the part of the raters. Various factors that impact teacher's attitudes towards stutterers were investigated in the 1981 study by Crowe and Walton. The Teacher's Attitude Toward Stuttering (TATS) inventory was devised for use in this study. It consisted of 36 statements designed to assess teacher's attitudes toward stutterers. These items were gathered from various samples of attitude statements accumulated from the literature on stuttering, classroom teachers and speech pathologists. Each statement was followed by a statement from "agree" to "strongly disagree". The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes of the elementary classroom teacher toward stuttering and to examine the relationships of these attitudes to factors such as: knowledge of stuttering, number of years of teaching experience, age, and personal experience with a stutterer, either in the classroom or as a parent. Subjects included 100 elementary teachers and 33 certified speech-language pathologists. The Alabama Stuttering Knowledge (ASK) test was used to measure the classroom teacher's knowledge of stuttering. This test contained 26 true-false statements ll chosen from the literature on stuttering. A higher score on this test indicated a more complete and accurate knowledge of stuttering. ’ The speech-language pathologists were asked to complete the TATS Inventory and the elementary teachers were asked to complete the TATS Inventory and the ASK test. Data analysis procedures were designed to determine the relationship that exists between the TATS Inventory and ASK test scores and between the TATS Inventory and the individual characteristics mentioned above as examined in the study. Results indicated that a significant positive correlation existed between the TATS scores and the ASK scores. The difference demonstrated that the teachers with a greater knowledge of stuttering demonstrated.more desirable attitudes toward stuttering. This result supports Crowe and Cooper's 1977 study that indicated a significant relationship between knowledge of and attitudes toward stuttering. A negative correlation was found between the presence of a stuttering child in the classroom and the attitude of the teachers. The teachers that were found to have a more positive attitude toward stutterers in the classroom were found less likely to have a stutterer in the classroom. No significant correlations were found between the teacher's TATS and ASK scores and the aforementioned characteristics examined by this study. Although these results are seemingly contradictory, it does not necessarily follow that the presence of a stutterer 12 in the classroom means accurate knowledge about stuttering. The attitudes of communication.disorders students toward stuttering was examined by St. Louis and Lass (198i). The purpose of this study was to expand upon the studies by Cooper (1975, 1979) in which the Clinician's Attitudes Toward Stuttering (CATS) inventory was devised and tested on speech pathology and audiology students. St. Louis and Lass (1981) used the CATS inventory to survey the professional knowledge and attitudes of students toward stuttering and to determine the extent to which those attitudes change as a function of the knowledge possessed about stutterers. The CATS inventory was designed to sample a variety of professional views regarding the nature of stuttering, the treatment of stuttering, and clinician competence and effectiveness. The CATS inventory is made up of 50 statements that can be grouped into» several. categories: etiology; parental factors, the stuttering symptom, the stutterer, therapy procedures, therapy effectiveness, and professional competence. The respondent is asked.to circle:a choice pertaining to the item, with possible responses ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". The CATS Inventories were sent to instructors at 40 Universities in 40 different states in the United States, which had both Audiology and Speech Pathology Undergraduate and Graduate programs. Participants responded to a short form pertaining to their class standing and their experiences with 13 stutterers. Of all respondents only 30% reported having a course devoted entirely to stuttering and less than 14% reported. having' direct. contact. with stutterers in their program. The majority of the respondents (54%-71%) responded positively to statements that stutterers have various personality problems. Respondents were uncertain about basic facts about stuttering such as "Most school age children spontaneously recover from stuttering". Responses indicated that most students viewed stuttering along the lines of Johnson's (1958) diagnosogenic theory. His theory states that over reaction to disfluent behaviors by parents result in the child developing into a stutterer. Only 21% of students felt that clinicians were adept at treating stutterers. It was found that views on stuttering changed surprisingly little as a function of student training. This study revealed. that. many students view stuttering as a difficult problem to handle clinically and did not feel comfortable treating stutterers. The results of this study indicate that there is no systematic way the clinicians acquire information about stuttering. There is great variability in the acquisition and reliability of the information held by students and there is no consistent relationship between experience or knowledge about stutterers and stereotyping of stutterers. The attitudes of university students and speech-language clinicians toward women and girls who stutter was examined by 14 Silverman (1982). Most. studies. examining attitudes about stutterers have focused on men and boys, finding undesirable personality characteristics such as "nervous, fearfui, shy, and insecure" attributed to those who stutter. The attitudes toward women and girls had not been explored. The purpose of this study was to determine if stereotypes held about females who stutter are different than stereotypes about males who stutter. A modification of the bipolar adjectival scale used by Woods and Williams (1976) was used as the test instrument in this study. This semantic differential was used to obtain subject's reactions to eight hypothetical constructs: A Girl, A Girl who Stutterers, A Boy, A Boy Who Stutters, A Woman, A Woman Who Stutters, A Man, A Man who stutters. The two groups of subjects in the study consisted of 400 speech-language pathologists and 176 university undergraduates enrolled in an introductory communications course. All groups that stutter were found to be negatively different from the non-stuttering groups. None of the traits attributed to female stutterers were the same as those traits attributed to male stutterers, except for "excitable" which was attributed to both groups. The undergraduates considered the fluent and non-fluent hypothetical constructs to be more different than the speech- language clinicians. Stereotypes of females who stutter were found to be more prevalent on the whole than stereotypes of males that stutter for the clinicians, while the opposite held true for the undergraduates. The age of the stutterer held l5 stronger differences in stereotypes for the clinicians than for the undergraduates, whose stereotypes were found to be more constant over all hypothetical constructs. A significant finding was that the undergraduates found there to be no differences between the stuttering and non-stuttering female groups. Overall, this study confirms the previous studies (Woods and Williams, 1971, 1976;Turnbaugh et al, 1979, 1981; St. Louis and Lass, 1981) that found that speech-language pathologists and university undergraduates have negative stereotypes of people who stutter. Also significant was the finding that the gender of the stutterer can impact the kind of stereotyping. The fact that speech language pathologists had the greatest negative reaction to female stutterers needs to be addressed in future research. White and Collins (1984) hypothesize that stereotypes held about the stuttering personality are formed.by "inference about the beliefs about the internal variables that accompany disfluencies resembling stuttering on occasions when they occur in normally fluent individuals". They put forth the idea that fluent people tended to stereotype stutterers using the characteristics they momentarily felt when having a normal dysfluency, nervousness or sensitivity for example. The subjects in the study were 80 college students, with an mean age of 18. The subjects were naive to the purpose of the study; 'The test instrument.used was the 25 bipolar adjectival 16 rating scale used by Woods and Williams (1976). There were two testing conditions and each subject was exposed to only one. The differing factor was the instructions. One'set of instructions told the subject to consider a hypothetical person who has a short period of stuttering after which he speaks fluently again. The other set of instructions told the subject to consider a hypothetical person who has a chronic and uncontrollable stutter. No definition of stuttering was given to either group. The participants were not told of the purpose of the study. Comparison of results was made between this study and Woods and Williams (1976) study. Again it was found that stereotypes about stutterers are commonly held even by those who have adequate knowledge, such as speech-language pathologists. The authors hypothesize this stereotype could be well established before students enter professional training. Two possible ways this stereotype may be perpetuated are mentioned. One is that the stereotype may be a self- fulfilling prophecy (Turnbaugh et a1. 1979). That is, a clinician’s belief in a stereotype may induce clients to behave in a way consistent with it. Confirmatory testing is another possible reason. Confirmatory testing involves the psychological phenomenon in which people seek out and believe only the instances of behavior that confirnttheir belief about the subject. Further investigation is required to explore these possibilities. This suggests that the internal states of I? normally fluent people during dysfluent speech happen to be negative. The impact stuttering has on the employability—of the stutterer was examined by Hurst and Cooper (1983) . It specifically looked at the employers attitudes toward stuttering and the effects it could have on the hiring and promotion potential the stutterer may have. The Employer Attitudes Toward Stuttering Inventory (EATS) was mailed to 2719 personnel and industrial relations directors from the southeastern United States. While nearly 23% of personnel directors had interviewed a stutterer, only 14% had hired a stutterer. While 45% reported having no stutterers in their employment, 40% reported. having 1-3 stutterers in their employment. The EATS Inventory was developed to assess the attitudes of those who might employ stutterers. The employers were asked to rate the strength of their agreement to seven attitudinal statements from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". No attempt.was made toiassess the validity and reliability of the EATS Inventory on employers. While 22% of employers strongly disagreed with the statement that stuttering interferes with job performance, 5% strongly agreed with the statement. Totally, 30% of employers agreed that stuttering interfered somewhat with job performance. 36% of respondents agreed that stutterers should seek employment that required little speaking. It was found that a significantly higher percentage 18 of males disagreed with an affirmative action program for stutterers than female employers. Employers who did employ stutterers tended to disagree with the statement that stuttering interferes with job performance. The authors mention that the finding that the majority of employers do not consider stuttering to interfere with job performance should be used in educational programs to increase public acceptance and understanding of stutterers. The majority of employers did agree that stuttering does interfere with promotional possibilities and 85% of employers agreed. that stuttering’ decreases employabilityu These finding support Maxwell's (1980) conclusion that the vocational opportunities available to stutterers are restricted . The fact that employers that do employ stutterers are less inclined to feel it interferes with job performance is in contradiction to Crowe & Walton's (1981) study and St. Louis and Lass's (1981) study that concluded that exposure to stutterers does not necessarily decease stereotyping. In Hurst and Cooper's 1983 study, vocational counselor's attitudes toward the rehabilitative potential of stutterers were examined. The purpose of the study was to asses vocational rehabilitation counselors' knowledge of and attitudes toward stuttering. A previous study found that vocational counselors felt that speech disorders in general and the problem of stuttering specifically to only be 19 moderately handicapping. The authors felt an examination of these attitudes to be warranted due to the potential impact of vocational counselors on stutterers career potential. The Alabama Rehabilitation Counselors’ Attitude Toward Stuttering (ARCATS) Inventory consists of 25 true-false statements designed to assess rehabilitation counselors' knowledge of stuttering and 15 statements to assess attitudes toward stuttering. The statements were constructed and ascertained as true or false based on a literature review of stuttering. No attempts were made to assess the validity or reliability of the ARCATS Inventory. 152 vocational rehabilitation counselors who were attending various meetings in Alabama completed the survey. Results indicated that 19 of the 25 true-false statements pertaining to stuttering were answered correctly by more than half of the rehabilitation counselors. 76% of the counselors agreed with the statement that benefits almost always appear to be gained by stutterers in speech therapy. 50% of the counselors agreed that of all the various speech disorders, stuttering appears to be the most vocationally handicapping. Those counselors with stutterers on their caseload appeared to have a stronger view that stuttering is vocationally handicapping. Although these are negative views on the whole, in this context they can be positive due to the fact that the more handicapping counselors see stuttering, the more help he/she is willing to give them. 20 On the whole, rehabilitation counselors appeared to be relatively knowledgeable about stuttering. They were also found to hold the realistic view that although stuttering may be benefitted through therapy, the dysfluent behavior will not completely'disappear. The results of'this study are indicative of the fact that education about stuttering can benefit those who interact with stutterers by giving them a realistic, as opposed to stereotyped, view of stutterers. The personal interactions the rehabilitation counselors have with stutterers is key in their accumulation of realistic information pertaining to stutterers. The fact that people have realistic information about stuttering can also benefit the stutterer by removing the impact of harmful stereotypes from their daily lives. Stereotypes about the stuttering personality for both male and female children were investigated in a study by Horsley and FitzGibbon (1987). Young children were examined in this study for a number of reasons. Speech clinicians look at young stutterers differently because of the commonly held differentiation between "primary” and "secondary" stutterers. Primary stutterers are characterized by being relatively unaware of the ir dysf luencies and not displaying secondary characteristics. Primary stutterers also have a higher recovery rate of approximately 80%. Also, the majority of studies done on attitudes toward stutterers have focused on either men or young boys. This study looks at both male and 21 female children who stutter. For these reasons the authors felt it important to examine attitudes toward young children who stutter. - Thirty-one British speech clinicians and 64 student speech clinicians participated in the study. The subjects were divided into two groups, Group I with clinical experience of more than 10 years and Group II, with clinical experience of two to ten years. The student clinicians were divided into 7 groups, consistent with their current year of training. A group of primary school student teachers and qualified secondary school teachers acted as comparison groups. The 25 item bipolar adjectival scale devised by Woods and Williams (1976) was used in this study. Eight hypothetical constructs were used in the study as follows : typical pre- school girl, typical eight-year old girl, typical pre-school girl stutterer, typical eight-year-old girl stutterer, typical pre-school boy, typical eight-year-old boy, typical pre-school boy stutterer, typical eight-year-old boy stutterer. Each participant completed a brief questionnaire as to the number of stutterers known and years of clinical experience. The participants were not aware of the purpose of the study and no description of the hypothetical constructs were provided. Examining the sample as a whole, stuttering children were not viewed favorably as compared to non-stuttering children. There were statistically significant differences found for all four stimulus groups on all but five adjectives. Negative 22 traits associated with age groups were found to often be exaggerated by the characteristic of stuttering. Clinicians were found to be more moderate in their ratings than-student clinicians. Two factors were constructed to analyze the overall "tenseness" and "pleasantness" of the ratings. The "Tenseness scale" found the adjectives "tense" and "anxious" as being rated "quite a bit" overall across groups. On the "Pleasantness scale" stuttering boys were found to be less pleasant overall compared to their non-stuttering peers. As was found in previous studies (Crowe and Walton, 1981; St.Louis and Lass, 1981), the number of stutterers known did not have a consistent effect on the general stereotype held about stutterers. "Tenseness" characteristics were found to increase with age and pre-school stutterers of both genders were found to possess mostly characteristic associated with "Tenseness", such as shyness and self-consciousness. Females in general were viewed as being more pleasant than males, stuttering girls less so than their fluent counterparts. Among school-age children, boys were found to be the least pleasant. Stereotypes pertaining to young boys reported in Woods and Williams (1976) study were found to be consistent with those in the present study. Generally, this study concluded.that.the label "stutterer" elicits mostly negative judgments about the child at any age regardless of gender. Characteristics, such as gender and age, were found to impact the strength of stereotype. The educational process of student clinicians was 23 found to impact the strength of stereotypes in making them weaker. It was concluded that it is important for clinicians . to be made aware of their own stereotypes through «a self- evaluatory process. Speech pathologist's perception of stutterers was again examined by Lass et al.(1989). This research addressed to what extent stuttering influenced the listener's judgement of non- speech characteristics of stutterers. A questionnaire was constructed by the authors in which the subjects were asked to list as many adjectives as they could that accurately described four hypothetical stutterers (male adult stutterer, female adult stutterer, male eight-year-old stutterer, female eight-year-old stutterer). The questionnaire was completed by 81 speech-language pathologists from Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and West Virginia, the majority of whom were employed in the schools. The overwhelming majority of adjectives used to describe stutterers were concerned with personality characteristics, very few pertaining to physical appearance or mental abilities. More traits were reported for both groups of male stutterers and nearly all of the traits reported for all groups were negative. "Shy", "nervous" and "frustrated" were among the most commonly reported traits. The average number of years of professional experience was 8.9 in the group questioned. The subjects had provided an average of 36.4 clinical service hours to stutterers over their professional 24 careers. This study confirms again the findings that predominantly negative perceptions of stutterers are held by communication disorder students (St.Louis & Lassrl 1981; Silverman, 1982) and speech pathologists (Horsley & FitzGibbon, 1987;Silverman, 1982). Patterson and Pring (1991) attempted to replicate the findings of Burley and Rinaldi (1986) which demonstrated a gender difference in which male listeners made more negative attributions toward stutterers than female listeners. The authors maintain that the results of the original study were inconclusive due to the lack of a control group of fluent speakers. Two groups of subjects were used, one rating stutterers and the other rating fluent speakers. An audio tape was played of two stutterers and non-stutterers, matched for age and English proficiency, were played. The subjects were asked to place a speaker on a seven point scale according to bipolar adjective items. The mean rating scores for male and female listeners to fluent and dysfluent speakers showed a significant negative difference between ratings given to the two types of speakers. However, in terms of the