Clinician attitudes towards stuttering: Two decades of change

The attitudes of 1,198 speech-language pathologists toward stuttering, individuals who stutter and their parents, therapy, and related issues were studied between 1983 and 1991. Results of the study were compared with results obtained by the investigators in an identical study conducted between 1973 and 1983 of 674 speech-language pathologists. Among several changes in attitudes observed during the 18-year period were the rejection of concepts suggesting parental causality in fluency disorders, dangers in early intervention, and the perception that individuals who stutter possess characteristic personality traits. The results are interpreted as making a case for enhancing the education of the profession's general practitioner to serve those who stutter as well as developing a cadre of fluency specialists.