Devising of introductory malingered stuttering-evaluation questionnaire

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 M.Sc. student in speech therapy, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

2 M.Sc. in speech therapy, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

3 M.Sc. in clinical psychology, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

4 PhD. student in psychometry, Imam Reza University of Mashhad, Membership of scientific board of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

 Introduction: Stuttering is a deficit in speech fluency and timing of its pattern that is defined with symptoms like repetition, prolongation and block of phonemes and syllables. The main characteristic of this syndrome is its variability across different situations which made it difficult to be assessed precisely. It would be certainly more sophisticated when facing with a malingerer. The main purpose of this study is to build a questionnaire which is norm statistically and able to differentiate between true and feigning stuttering and is correlated with clinical findings.
 Materials and Methods: This is a mixed qualitative study and its data was obtained via carrying out the questionnaire, speech facilitator techniques, structured interview and MMPI2 on available cases. These data were analyzed with SPSS version 18 through descriptive statistics and psychometric parameters. This project was done through 2 inductor and main phase in order to obtain the validity and reliability of the mentioned questionnaire.
 Results: During performing this study, a standard short form (contains 17 question) questionnaire was built with 0.884 reliability which was norm statistically.
Conclusion: The mentioned questionnaire had correlation with data which was obtained from carrying out MMPI, speech facilitator techniques and structured interview. We also found that the manner the person reacts to speech facilitator techniques, score of questionnaire and the severity of the stuttering through the different speech situations in interview are critical in diagnosing feigning stuttering.

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