Evaluating treatment outcomes for adults who stutter

The evaluation of stuttering treatment outcomes has traditionally focused primarily on changes in the production of speech disfluencies, even though many treatment approaches also address other aspects of the stuttering disorder, such as the speaker's reactions to stuttering and the overall effect of stuttering on the speaker's ability to communicate. One reason for the relative lack of outcomes data for many commonly recommended treatment programs is the fact that clinicians and researchers have not previously had access to a reliable means of assessing changes in the broader consequences of stuttering on a speaker's life. This paper describes an ongoing effort to develop a series of measurement instruments that can be used to evaluate the outcomes of a wide variety of stuttering treatment approaches by measuring changes in speakers' affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to stuttering; the effect of stuttering on speakers' functional communication abilities; and the impact of stuttering on speakers' overall quality of life.