Attitudes toward stuttering of college students in the USA and China: A cross-cultural comparison using the POSHA-S.

PURPOSE: This study compared the attitudes toward stuttering among college students in China and the USA using the POSHA-S survey, which assesses knowledge about stuttering and attitudes toward it. We investigated how cultural and social differences between the two groups influenced these attitudes. METHODS: We collected 199 responses to the POSHA-S survey from various universities in China and the USA. We conducted a statistical analysis of 15 summary scores generated from the POSHA-S to determine if there were significant differences in attitudes toward stuttering between the two groups. Additionally, we retrieved percentile ranks relative to the global POSHA-S database to compare attitudes in both groups with global median scores. RESULTS: The study revealed that Chinese college students hold more negative attitudes toward stuttering compared to their American counterparts and the global median scores. We discussed the social and cultural factors that may contribute to these attitudes. Furthermore, our findings emphasized the importance of addressing the lack of accurate information about stuttering in China, which could be a key factor driving these negative attitudes. CONCLUSION: These results underscore the urgent need to raise awareness about stuttering and promote a shift in public attitudes, especially among college students in China, who play influential roles in society's future.

Stuttering experience of people in China: A cross-cultural perspective.

PURPOSE: This study uses the Simplified Chinese version of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for Adults (OASES-A-SC) to examine the stuttering experience of people in China and determine if there are differences between the data collected in China and other countries. METHODS: A total of 139 responses to the OASES-A-SC were collected in an online self-help community of people in China who stutter. Descriptive analyses were conducted to obtain the understanding of how stuttering impacts the life experience of people in China who stutter. Comparisons were conducted regarding the groups of gender, highest education, and therapy history. Cross-cultural comparisons among the data collected from China, Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, and the USA were also conducted. RESULTS: The data for the OASES-A-SC showed a skewed distribution toward the severe end of the OASES-A impacting scale. About 93.5% participants rated the overall impact of stuttering on their life at and above the "Moderate" category. The mean scores of the General Information, Reaction to Stuttering, and Qualify of Life sections fell in the moderate-to-severe category. Compared with the data in other five countries, the Chinese data were significantly higher in the impact severity level. CONCLUSION: The results showed that people in China who stutter have more adverse experiences related to stuttering compared with their counterparts in western or developed countries. Higher negative attitudes toward stuttering in China, social stigma against people with disabilities, and the fewer professional supports were discussed to be associated with this more adverse experience. Cultural differences such as a greater power distance and higher collectivism in Chinese culture were considered to be associated with the elevated level of adverse impact of stuttering in China.

Qualitative analysis of social support for caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders in South India.

BACKGROUND: Despite its importance, limited formal social supports are available for caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) navigating rehabilitation and caregiving in low-resource contexts. The current study investigates the social support sources and coping processes of caregivers of children with NDD at a rural rehabilitation center in South India. An emphasis is placed on interactions between the study participants and families of other children with NDD receiving services at the center. METHODS AND PROCEDURE: A constructivist grounded theory methodology was adopted. Data analysis was based on data obtained from twenty-two parents obtaining rehabilitation services in the center over two phases. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Constant comparative analysis of caregivers' perceptions and experiences generated a theoretical framework of the long-term emergence of social support and coping, comprising three subcategories: accessing service, gaining acceptance and experiencing support at a grassroots level, and coping at a grassroots level. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings illustrate the need for and benefit of supporting caregivers of children with NDD to find informal social support. Critical considerations for rehabilitation providers, researchers, and policymakers to facilitate caregivers' formal and informal social support and coping skills are discussed.

Aided communication, mind understanding and co-construction of meaning.

Mind understanding allows for the adaptation of expressive language to a listener and is a core element when communicating new information to a communication partner. There is limited knowledge about the relationship between aided language and mind understanding. This study investigates this relationship using a communication task. The participants were 71 aided communicators using graphic symbols or spelling for expression (38/33 girls/boys) and a reference group of 40 speaking children (21/19 girls/boys), aged 5;0-15;11 years. The task was to describe, but not name, drawings to a communication partner. The partner could not see the drawing and had to infer what was depicted from the child's explanation. Dyads with aided communicators solved fewer items than reference dyads (64% vs 93%). The aided spellers presented more precise details than the symbol users (46% vs 38%). In the aided group, number of correct items correlated with verbal comprehension and age.

Parenting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in South India.

PURPOSE: There is limited research on the needs and expectations of parents of children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and associated complex communication needs (CCNs) in South India. The current paper will present the findings from a study that explored parents' needs and expectations, including those related to rehabilitation. METHOD: This study adopted an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework to understand the needs and expectations of 16 parents of 15 children with IDD and associated CCNs. Data were analyzed for the whole group, and two subgroups: parents of children 12 years or younger, and parents of adults and adolescents older than 12 years. RESULT: Data analysis highlighted the following: (1) unmet or undermet needs and expectations with regard to children's social participation, societal and familial support, childcare needs, financial requirements, and need for information; (2) changing needs and expectations of parents as their children grow older; (3) inadequacy of social participation and interaction opportunities for the participants' children. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that rehabilitation providers including Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) need to be aware of parents' needs and expectations and collaborate with the families to attain rehabilitation goals that facilitate social participation.

The sociolinguistics of lisping: a review.

This article presents a review of the lisping research literature with the aim of providing a framework for the consideration of the sociolinguistics of lisping. We consider, in turn, the nature of lisping, the construction of identity through speech, the nature of stigma, and, in particular, stigma associated with communication disorders and especially lisping. Further, we examine two aspects of the literature on lisping in more detail: lisping as minor bodily stigma and lisping and the internet. We conclude that experiential research on identity construction at the level of the individual, and stigma theory at a collective speech community level, support the case for viewing the sociolinguistics of lisping as a legitimate field of study and establishing a framework for acknowledgment of and further investigation into the self-identified adult who lisps.

Considerations for Chinese text input methods in the design of speech generating devices: a tutorial.

Millions of Chinese-speaking people who have the most severe speech disorders could potentially benefit from using Speech Generating Devices (SGDs) to help them participate in society. Entering Chinese text into computer systems is complex, and the process itself requires a translation system from the small selection set of keys to Chinese characters, thus adding to the complexities of adaptive access to computers often required by people who rely on them for spoken and written communication. This paper examines two types of input method: those relying on phonetic principles, and those relying on logographic principles. It evaluates the potential pros and cons of each input method to specific populations with complex communication needs.

Vocabulary comprehension and strategies in name construction among children using aided communication.

Vocabulary learning reflects the language experiences of the child, both in typical and atypical development, although the vocabulary development of children who use aided communication may differ from children who use natural speech. This study compared the performance of children using aided communication with that of peers using natural speech on two measures of vocabulary knowledge: comprehension of graphic symbols and labeling of common objects. There were 92 participants not considered intellectually disabled in the aided group. The reference group consisted of 60 participants without known disorders. The comprehension task consisted of 63 items presented individually in each participant's graphic system, together with four colored line drawings. Participants were required to indicate which drawing corresponded to the symbol. In the expressive labelling task, 20 common objects presented in drawings had to be named. Both groups indicated the correct drawing for most of the items in the comprehension tasks, with a small advantage for the reference group. The reference group named most objects quickly and accurately, demonstrating that the objects were common and easily named. The aided language group named the majority correctly and in addition used a variety of naming strategies; they required more time than the reference group. The results give insights into lexical processing in aided communication and may have implications for aided language intervention.

Communication aid provision and use among children and adolescents developing aided communication: an international survey.

A fundamental requirement of a supportive language development for young children who need aided communication is that an aided communication system is made available and its use is supported. There is limited information about the age at which children are typically provided with a communication aid or about how aided communication is used in everyday situations. Using questionnaire-based interview data, this study investigated (a) the pattern of provision of communication aids to 84 children and adolescents, (b) parents' and professionals' evaluation of the quality of communication across contexts, and (c) availability and use of aided communication in these contexts. The age at which the participants received their first aided system varied considerably across the group; however, most were considerably older than the age at which children with typical development usually begin to speak. Parents and professionals rated most everyday situations as good communication situations but reported that the participants did not have their main form of expressive language available in many of these situations, or did not use it much. Parents rated their child's education in relation to aided language positively, but many professionals indicated that they had limited knowledge about the participant's use of aided communication outside of the school environment, or about the parents' attitudes. The study gives insights into the language learning situation of children and adolescents who develop aided communication.

Multilingual issues in qualitative research.

This study is a reflective account of how problem solving was accomplished during the translation of semi-structured interviews from a source language to a target language. Data are drawn from two qualitative research studies in which Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to obtain insights into the lived experience of parents of children with disabilities in India and Turkey. The authors discuss challenges to interpretation that arise when participants and the main researcher speak the same non-English native language and the results of the study are intended for an English-speaking audience. A common theme in both the Turkish and Indian data relates to parents' understanding of their children's symptomology and the prognosis. Implications include the need for both reflective conversation within the research team to address the translation of problematic utterances, and documentation of the translation process in the presentation of research findings.

Perception of American English dark /l/ by normally hearing young adult women.

This perceptual study describes changes in how listeners perceive VCV elements within successive truncations taken from an iambic phrase containing /l/ (e.g. a leaf, or a load) spoken by four male speakers of General American English. Evidence of the respective roles of dorsal gestural affiliation between /l/ and the reduced vowel, (V(1)CV(2)), and gestural separation from a tautosyllabic high front vowel (V(2)) were demonstrated. Coproduction of dark-l with a preceding reduced vowel was evident in early reports of back vowels or diphthongs, particularly when the carrier word contained a front vowel, and was noted more in darker-l than lighter-l speakers. The pairing of /l/ with a tautosyllabic front vowel reduced earlier identification of /l/, whereas its pairing with a back vowel enhanced early identification. The role of perceived contrast in identification of /l/ was reflected in changes in listener's perception of the reduced vowel across successive truncations. Clinical implications are addressed.

Contextual variability in American English dark-l.

This paper presents a four-subject study that examines the relative influence of syllable position and stress, together with vowel context on the colouring of the dark-l characteristic of speakers of General American English. Most investigators report lighter /l/ tokens in syllable onsets and darker tokens in coda positions. The present study demonstrates that when dark-l serves as an onset in iambic intervocalic context with tautosyllabic high front vowels, it is fully dark as a result of domain-initial strengthening. By contrast, when dark-l is abutted across a word boundary to word-final or word-initial consonants, or when it is contained in a foot-internal context (preboundary intervocalic rime with trochaic stress) its dorsal gesture is constrained, resulting in less dark tokens. In the case of dark-l, articulatory undershoot must be understood not only in terms of the alveolar gesture, but also the dorsal gesture.

Metrical/syllabic factors in English allophony: dark /l/.

This paper presents a single-subject case study illustrating the need to closely examine effects of dialect from syllable position on l-colouring, and the effects of domain-initial strengthening in General American English. Most investigators report lighter /l/ tokens in syllable onsets and darker tokens in coda positions in isolated words. The present study demonstrates an enhanced darkened onset /l/ in front vowel prosodic word (PW) boundaries, but lighter codas at PW-internal boundaries. We address the importance for clinicians of recognizing the impact of prosody on restructuring syntactic boundaries and its consequent effects on /l/ articulation.