ESTABLISHING THE VALIDITY OF RECOVERY FROM STUTTERING WITHOUT FORMAL TREATMENT

There is no empirical basis for determining goals for stuttering treat ment. One approach that might resolve this issue is to systematically investigate persons who claim to have recovered from stuttering withou t the assistance of treatment. However, critical methodological and co nceptual issues must be overcome first in order to assure these person s had a valid stuttering problem and that their recovery was independe nt of treatment. This study examined a validation procedure for solvin g these issues based on the combination of two methods: independent ve rification and self-reports. Forty-two subjects participated: 14 adult s who recovered from stuttering without assistance, 14 adults with per sistent stuttering, and 14 adults who were normally fluent speakers. F or the independent verification, a Speech Behavior Checklist was admin istered to 42 individuals familiar with the recovered subjects' past s peech and the other subjects' current speech. Results indicated that p ersons who knew the recovered subjects when they used to stutter recal led speech behaviors consistent with subjects who still stuttered, but not the same as speech behaviors consistent with subjects who never s tuttered. These findings were supported by an objective analysis of th e recovered subjects' descriptions of their past stuttering. Furthermo re, a content analysis of subjects' sell-reports indicated that recove ry was independent of treatment.