Announcing 'Stammering Research' - Stammering Research - UCL

Stammering Research. Vol. 1.
had concentrated on the positive and negative aspects of the Apple House intervention. In the
interview, we wanted participants to expand on which positive effects continued, to provide
information that would help devise more effective support strategies. Questions were the result of a
focus group discussion (previous course participants) of views of their stammer and the help they had
received. This conversation revealed topics that were biographical information, beliefs about facts,
feelings, motives, actions and reactions as areas of social reality regarding their dysfluency. The most
popular questions were chosen and piloted with a male and female subject and presented no problems
in answering. The author familiarized participants with procedures before they were interviewed in
their homes.
Even more important for reliability than the type of interview selected, was the need to follow
standardized protocol for their delivery. Selltiz et al (1964) in ‘The Art of Interviewing’, provided rules
and taboos. Questions must be asked as worded and in the same order. Interviewers should not show
surprise or disapproval of answers, offer impromptu explanations of questions, suggest possible replies,
or skip items. Brenner (1981) states it is important to achieve equivalence of stimulus conditions to
prevent bias. These criteria were respected and pilot interviews were videoed to examine and adjust
procedures.
Interviews began with a period of casual conversation to allow participants to relax and settle.
Responses to the target questions were taped and transcribed. There was no prompting or comment by
the researcher who only provided occasional encouraging smiles and nods. When participants appeared
to have said all they wanted on a question, the next question was asked. This goal-oriented structure
was designed to provide participants with opportunities to give their views about their own dysfluency
issues without fear of judgment. The interpretive repertoires following the data collection identified
broad discourse themes used to characterize experiences. Non-quantified data frequently contains clues
to understanding phenomena that enrich conclusions and provide theoretical and practical significance
for therapy. For example, the way participants think about their stammer is so different that it would be
difficult to reduce information to numbers that convey the picture described in words. Two experts
transcribed the text. They also highlighted those sections of the text that closely answered the questions
and all these passages are scripted below. There was a 90 per cent agreement among raters regarding
the passages highlighted. Approximately 30 per cent of the taped interviews were discarded because
they moved away from the question. Dysfluencies are not marked in the text as the views rather than
the performance of participants was the purpose of the interviews. Other than the introductory
paragraph, which is a summary of the initial conversation when participants gave background
information, all the answers reported are the actual wordings of the interviewees who checked the
transcripts to ensure this.
The Interview data
The aspect of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their
simplicity and familiarity. (Wittgenstein, 1968, para 129)
PAUL
Paul is in his fifties. He is married with a son attending senior school and a daughter at university.
The first impression one gets of Paul is his lovely smile and an eagerness to make conversation, It is
immediately apparent that he is very knowledgeable about a huge range of things. He went to Public
school and later studied at Oxford, gaining a PhD. This gave him entry to a career dealing with
important buildings. He heads up a department that manages aspects of national heritage. Paul has
been able to immerse himself in research and writing and minimize speaking situations that could bring
pain and embarrassment. However, he is naturally friendly and interested in people. He has had to
change his life to fit his speech situation. This interview demonstrates how dysfluency can interfere
with career plans and cause endless problems in living successfully and happily.
Question: Paul, what are your first memories about stammering?
Answer: My speech problem had been obvious since starting school at five, but got worse as I became
older. I remember an incident in a school play when I was nine - one of the parents thought I had
forgotten my lines when I started to stammer on stage. Although I remember very little direct teasing
at school, the words ‘unfortunate’ and ‘poor Paul’, were certainly in the air and occasionally expressed.
When I was ten, my mother became anxious about my speaking and consulted an uncle who was a
clergyman and also a speech therapist. We had some informal counselling sessions but my speech did
not make any improvement. I have inherited a family trait as my father stammered when he was young
and still shows some hesitancy. My sister started to stammer after the birth of her first child and now
falters sometimes when she speaks. We all have this genetic predisposition. It is there, like a cloak
around the shoulders, smothering you on occasions.
I went to see my prep-school headmaster, at the age of thirteen, on my own initiative, in order to
find out more about my early stammering days. He was helpful, and remembered that my stammer
would be worse at the beginning of term after being at home for the holidays.
275