Short Biographical Sketch

J. Scott Yaruss, PhD, is Associate Professor of Communication Science and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh and Associate Director of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Yaruss teaches courses on stuttering and counseling skills for and conducts research on the onset and treatment of stuttering.

Lecture Title | videoconferencing

Stuttering Treatment Outcomes: Considering the Entire Disorder

Abstract

The evaluation of stuttering frequency, naturalness, and speaking rate are key measures of speech fluency that are often considered in studies of stuttering treatment outcomes studies. They are not the only measures of interest, however. The stuttering disorder can affect many aspects of a speaker’s life beyond observable speech behaviors. Examples include the negative affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions that many speakers experience, the negative reactions of the people in the speaker’s environment, the limitations a speaker may have with communication in key situations, and restrictions in a speaker’s ability to participate fully in life. This presentation will present ways that clinicians and researchers can incorporate a broader set of measures in the evaluation of stuttering treatment outcomes to ensure that hey are addressing the entire disorder from the perspective of the individual who stutters. The presentation will include both a theoretical framework and justification for considering such measures and a practical basis for collecting relevant information within the context of diganostic evaluations and treatment.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will learn:

1. how to describe the entirety of the stuttering disorder using the framework of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health,
2. why it is important to incorporate all aspects of the disorder in diagnostic evaluations and treatment,
3. how to collect relevant data about the entirety of the stuttering disorder in diagnostic evaluations and treatment.