PARENTS SPEECH AND CHILDRENS STUTTERING - A CRITIQUE OF THE LITERATURE

The role of parents in relation to their children's stuttering has bee n of great interest to speech-language pathologists for more than 50 y ears, As part of treatment, speech-language pathologists frequently ad vise parents to modify their speech behaviors when talking with their children. For example, parents are often told to speak more slowly and to refrain from interrupting or questioning the child excessively. Gi ven the commonness of this advice, it is important to examine the rese arch upon which it is based. This article contains a critical review o f the literature concerning the role of parents' speech behaviors (e.g ., rate, interruptions, question-asking) in relation to their children 's stuttering. Published studies are reported and analyzed in order to determine the extent to which parents may affect their children's stu ttering through their own speech behaviors. The review indicates that there is little convincing evidence to support the view that parents o f children who stutter differ from parents of children who do not stut ter in the way they talk with their children. Similarly, there is litt le objective support for the argument that parents' speech behaviors c ontribute to children's stuttering or that modifying parents' speech b ehaviors facilitates children's fluency. Implications for treatment an d for future research are discussed.