Factors involved in the identification of stuttering severity in a foreign language

Aim. Speech-language pathologists nowadays are more and more confronted with clients who speak a language different from their own mother tongue. The assessment of persons who speak a foreign language poses particular challenges. The present study investigated the possible role and interplay of four factors involved in the identification of stuttering severity in a foreign language: (1) familiarity with the client's language, (2) closeness to the client's language, (3) stuttering severity of the client, and (4) professional experience of the clinician. Methods. Nineteen speech-language pathologists from five different countries (i.e. Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belgium) rated stuttering severity of speech samples featuring persons who stutter speaking Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, or Dutch. Additionally, they were asked to score how easy they found it to rate the samples. Results. For both experienced and non-experienced judges, stuttering severity ratings were more accurate when assessing severe stuttering. Additionally, in experienced clinicians only, accurateness for rating mild to moderate stuttering increased when languages were closer together. Further, the closer to and the more familiar with the mother tongue, the easier participants experienced rating stuttering severity, and this irrespective of the client's stuttering severity and the clinician's professional experience. Conclusion. Accuracy of rating stuttering severity in another language is foremost determined by the client's stuttering severity, while ease of rating stuttering severity is essentially related to the clinician's closeness to and familiarity with the client's language.

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