Thesis
Developing consensus guidelines for stuttering pedagogy
University of Iowa
Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
Spring 2025
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007863
Abstract
There is currently a critical shortage of stuttering specialists who teach graduate courses on stuttering (Yaruss et al., 2017). As a result, many graduate programs do not offer a stuttering course or the course is taught by a non-specialist who is not equipped to cover the intricate nature of stuttering and its therapy. This is further complicated by a changing landscape as stuttering therapy becomes more informed by the neurodiversity-affirming movement (Gerlach-Houck & Constantino, 2022). The purpose of this study was to establish guidance to instructors of graduate stuttering courses including the essential topics, learning activities, and resources needed to prepare students to work comprehensively with clients who stutter. The overarching goal of this work is to mitigate the amount of SLPs who have low confidence in working with this clinical population (Beita-Ell & Boyle, 2020; Kelly et al., 2020).
Recruitment information was emailed to all accredited graduate programs in the U.S. to identify experts based on their professional, clinical, and academic experiences. A total of 40 participants met the inclusionary criteria and agreed to participate. A portion of these experts also identified as people who stutter themselves. Participation involved an iterative process, known as the Delphi method, where they first submitted qualitative responses (Round 1 survey) and later numerically rated the pooled items based on their level of importance for inclusion in a comprehensive stuttering course (Round 2 survey). A consensus was reached when at least 50% of participants provided the same Likert-rating for an item in the Round 2 survey.
Out of the total 198 topics, 83 learning activities, and 96 resources, consensus was reached for 100 topics, 17 learning activities, and 30 resources that experts rated as not important, slightly important, moderately important, and extremely important with a simple majority. Taken together, practical learning experiences such as meeting people who stutter, engaging with clinical case studies, and pseudostuttering were ranked as extremely important for teaching a comprehensive stuttering course. The rated items offer a guideline for non-experts to prepare a course that navigates the complexities of stuttering and prepares students to do so in the clinical workforce.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Developing consensus guidelines for stuttering pedagogy
- Creators
- Julia S Kerrigan
- Contributors
- Naomi Rodgers (Advisor)Philip Combiths (Committee Member)Anu Subramanian (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Speech Pathology and Audiology
- Date degree season
- Spring 2025
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007863
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- ix, 96 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2025 Julia S Kerrigan
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/06/2025
- Description illustrations
- illustrations, tables
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 38-45).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
- If a boat is slowly filling up with water, using buckets to scoop out the water would be less effective than finding and patching all the leaky entry points. For people who stutter, the boat is full with speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who are not prepared to work with them. In fact, SLPs themselves will often be the first to admit this. While the modern stuttering community is doing their best to scoop out misinformation and prejudice, there is a leak that urgently needs closing: graduate speech-language pathology programs that offer stuttering courses taught by non-experts, or do not offer them at all. This thesis aims to “patch the leak” by seeking agreement from stuttering experts on the necessary topics, learning activities, and resources that comprise a comprehensive stuttering course. The result is a list of what these experts agree are important or unimportant in the process of teaching emerging clinicians. These findings will be shared with instructors across U.S. graduate programs to ensure the next generation of SLPs are trained well and ready to climb aboard and help people who stutter.
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9984830729102771
Metrics
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