Young Children's (3-5 year olds) Perceptions of a Dysfluent Speaker

Margaret M. Leahy and Maria Griffen

Negative perceptions of stuttering exist in many groups of people, e.g., teachers and school-age children, but no study has yet considered young children’s perceptions of dysfluent speakers. This study involved 3-5 year old children using a non-experimental survey method, explanatory in nature. 18 children viewed two video-clips of a puppet telling a story, one a fluent speaker, the other dysfluent. Children’s perceptions and possible influencing factors (age, gender and prior exposure to stuttering) on perceptions were examined. Qualitative analysis of responses suggested that negative evaluation of the dysfluent speaker increases with age and is more pronounced in males than females.