Clinicians’ management of young children with co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder

Abstract

Speech sound disorders reportedly co-occur in young children who stutter at a substantial rate. Despite this, there is a paucity of scientific research available to support a treatment approach when these disorders co-exist. Similarly, little is known about how clinicians are currently working with this caseload given that best practice for the treatment of both disorders in isolation has evolved in recent years. This study used a qualitative approach to explore current clinical management and rationales when working with children who have co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder. Thirteen participant SLPs engaged in semi-structured telephone interviews. Interview data were analysed based on principles derived from grounded theory. Several themes were identified including multi-faceted assessment, workplace challenges, weighing-up the evidence, and direct intervention. The core theme, clinical reasoning, highlighted the participants’ main concern, that not enough is known about this caseload on which to base decisions about intervention. There was consensus that little is available in the research literature to guide decisions relating to service delivery. These findings highlight the need for further research to provide evidence-based guidelines for clinical practice with this caseload.

Keywords::

• Stuttering
• speech sound disorder
• qualitative

Acknowledgements

This work is part of a program of PhD research undertaken by the first author at the University of Newcastle. The authors would like to thank all of the SLPs who took part in the interviews, and for generously sharing their perceptions and experiences.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

The research is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) research scholarship through the University of Newcastle and funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government.