Self-perception of people who stutter regarding their experiences and results of stuttering treatments

To investigate the opinion about stuttering treatments in people who stutter, based on their answers to two open questions.

The participants were 40 adults of both genders, with self-reported stuttering. During the first phase of the research, we contacted two Brazilian nongovernmental organizations: the Brazilian Stuttering Association (ABRAGAGUEIRA) and the Brazilian Fluency Institute (IBF). These associations agreed to participate and were responsible for sending the research questions to their members via electronic mail. The first contact with the participants elucidated the purpose and method of our research and, after obtaining informed consent from participants, the two questions were sent. The research questions involved their opinion about cure, treatments to which the participants had been submitted, and their outcome.

After analysis, the answers obtained indicated that people who stutter believe in a cure for stuttering; that the ideal therapy would be the one that led to the disappearance of the symptoms; and the most frequently reported professional to treat the disorder is the speech-language pathologist. The results also indicated that although most of the participants had undergone speech-language treatment for stuttering, neither significant improvements were observed nor satisfaction was positive.

The results indicate that the answers presented by the participants were not based on scientific knowledge about the disorder but on their wish that "something could happen" to make stuttering "disappear." Although in this study we did not investigate the type of treatment to which the patients were submitted, the results suggest that the factors that contribute to an effective treatment are contentious.