Australian pre-service primary teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding stuttering

Purpose: Exploring Australian pre-service primary teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and classroom strategies regarding stuttering provides speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with information that can facilitate enhanced outcomes for school-aged children who stutter.

Method: In this exploratory descriptive cross-sectional study, 51 final-year Bachelor of Education (Primary) students enrolled at an Australian university completed an online survey about stuttering.

Result: Responses demonstrated positive and negative beliefs. Seventy-four per cent of pre-service teachers believed that stuttering has a psychological aetiology and that students who stutter are more likely to be shy or anxious. Participants agreed that their reactions and support offered would largely be based on their assumptions rather than knowledge.

Conclusion: Pre-service primary teachers share similar misconceptions and unhelpful attitudes towards stuttering with previously evaluated populations. Implications for SLPs are discussed.