The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness of stuttering in children ages three through seven who do and do not stutter, and to examine how their awareness might contribute to negative perceptions of persons who stutter. Participants included 12 children who stutter and 16 children who do not stutter. Each participant observed a 90-second Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) of two seal puppets employing appropriate turn-taking skills during a conversation. In this video, each puppet produced eight identical sentences. One puppet produced typically fluent speech characteristics. The other puppet produced disfluent speech characteristics. The participants answered 14 discrimination, self-identification, labeling, and evaluation questions to examine the awareness, perceptions, and social perceptions of stuttering. The participants were asked to identify with the puppet (fluent or disfluent) whose speech characteristics were most similar to their own. They also evaluated the puppets' use of disfluent and fluent speech to further examine personal responses to stuttering and determine whether specific characteristics of participants' stuttering patterns elicited negative peer responses. Results indicated no significant difference between the children who stutter and the children who do not stutter across the following measures: (1) awareness of stuttering, (2) perceptions of stuttering, and (3) social perceptions of stuttering. However, participants demonstrated emerging awareness that influenced negative perceptions of stuttering, as evidenced within each of the fluency groups. The percentage of children with an awareness of stuttering and resulting perceptions of stuttering was not significantly different from those participants with a limited awareness of stuttering. Analyses of individual fluency groups confirmed that awareness of stuttering impacted one's speech perceptions of stuttering, which influenced social perceptions of stuttering. / text

A recent U.S.-based survey (Boyle et al,. 2011) estimated stuttering prevalence in American children ages 3-17 years at 1.6% or 1 in 63 children. In comparison to the reported 1 in 68 school age children living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010), stuttering affects nearly as many. These estimates suggest that Speech-Language Pathologist (SLPs) should increasingly develop their skill sets for identifying and providing interventions for children who stutter. The evidence base for school-age fluency intervention, while promising, leaves much room for further development (Nippold, 2011). The majority of current interventions revolve around the traditional methods of fluency shaping and stuttering management. While these approaches are widely used, there is limited evidence to support their efficacy with the school-aged population (Bothe, et al., 2006). In addition, there is disagreement about whether treatment of stuttering in children should focus exclusively on "building fluent speech" or, whether interventions should also include cognitive/emotional components (Yaruss, Coleman, & Quesal, 2012) as are often associated with interventions for stuttering in adults. As a solution to the need for a cognitive/emotional component, Michael Boyle (2011) suggested including mindfulness in school-aged stuttering intervention by pointing out the similarities between the advantages of mindfulness treatment and personality traits necessary for long-term fluency maintenance. Although there has not yet been any published research in direct support of this idea, the notion that these three elements influence the effects of fluency intervention provides a foundation for the proposed research questions.