Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in the Intervention of Stuttering in Adolescents and Adults

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in the treatment of stuttering. The sample consisted of 15 adolescents and 15 adults. The mean age of the adolescents and adults was 17.4years and 26.8 years respectively. Each of the participants were required to attend ten sessions of one hour each, on a weekly basis. The therapy was conducted in accordance to the treatment module, which had a detailed session-by-session structured plan.The variables, which tested the efficacy of the treatment, were situational anxiety, communication attitude, assertiveness, self- esteem and fluency.These were assessed using Speech Situational Checklist-(short form), S-24 Communication Attitude Scale, Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale and the Speech Severity Index, respectively. All of these five were administered pre and post intervention. Analysis of results indicated that adults showed more improvement than adolescents with respect to SSC, CAS, RAS, RSE (t-values 1.56, 1.67, 1.79, & 1.56 respectively) and for SSI the adolescent showed slightly more improvement (t-value1.97) all of them were not significant. Hence, it can be concluded that the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy approach proved to be more efficacious in the treatment of adults who stutter especially when dealing with situational anxiety, communication attitude, assertiveness, self-esteem, and fluency as compared to adolescents.