Quality of life of individuals with persistent developmental stuttering.

BACKGROUND

quality of life.

AIM: to verify the influence of the readiness of speech--regarding affective, behavioral and cognitive reactions--over the life quality of fluent individuals and those with persistent developmental stuttering (PDS).

METHOD: 40 adults divided in two groups, paired by gender and age. The research group (GI) consisted of 20 individuals with PDS, with no other associated deficit. The research group (GII) consisted of 20 fluent individuals. All of the participants answered a Self-Assessment Protocol--version for adults. This protocol is composed by three thematic sessions, each one presenting five questions. Each question should be answered by choosing a number on a scale that varies from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). The first session corresponds to the affective reactions, the second to the behavioral reactions and the third to the cognitive reactions. All of the participants answered all of the 15 questions.

RESULTS

the findings indicate that a difference in the perception of speech and speech fluency exists between fluent individuals and individuals with PDS. For the individuals with PDS, the different stuttering severity levels did not present divergent points; on the contrary, even the individuals with mild PDS presented the same affective, behavioral and cognitive profiles of those with a more severe stuttering.

CONCLUSION

the results indicate that the experience with stuttering is different among the individuals in terms of the observable speech characteristics, functional communication difficulties experienced by the individual in everyday situations, having a negative impact in the quality of life.