Speech-Language Therapists' Lived Experiences of Family-Centered Practice in Early Childhood Stuttering

Family-centered practice (FCP) is widely endorsed in early childhood stuttering (ECS) intervention. Yet how it is experienced and enacted by speech-language therapists (SLTs) in clinical work remains largely unexamined, particularly in contexts where structured institutional support is absent.

A descriptive phenomenological design was used. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with eight SLTs in Türkiye and analyzed to identify shared structures of meaning.

Two themes were identified: (a) "Adaptation Through Experience" and (b) "Being With the Family." FCP was enacted as an individual ethical orientation rather than a shared service model. Despite identifying FCP as a family-centered model, SLTs operated within an expert-driven mode, that is, equating family involvement with family-centeredness with therapeutic decision making remaining firmly with the clinician.

The findings suggest that FCP in ECS functions as an individual ethical orientation rather than a shared professional practice, sustained by the notion of family-centeredness while decision making remains expert-driven. This configuration reflects a structural absence, not weak professional commitment. ECS research and practice have endorsed family-centered values without developing the conceptual and institutional conditions required to enact them. The conceptual scaffold presented here represents an initial articulation of what those conditions demand.