Date of Completion

2020

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Kathleen Ross, MS, CCC-SLP

Second Advisor

Susan Kasser, Ph.D.

Keywords

communication disorders, speech-language pathology

Abstract

Children’s literature can create a welcoming atmosphere to learn and reflect. This study views children’s books about stuttering as accessible tools for clinical and home environments. Previous research investigated the content of books about stuttering and found that many books are comprised of features that make them sufficient for use as instructional tools. This study uses content analysis to look at how children’s books (n=17) fulfill a series of seven factor requirements. Factors have a maximum of three points and are based on possible treatment methods and experiences of someone who stutters. The books are ranked from highest to lowest scores, depending on their degree of inclusion of all factors. This study also looks at the difference between average scores of books written prior to 2010 and books written during or after 2010. The analysis provided a wide range of results, with book scores ranging from 90% to 14%. The difference between average scores of books written before and after 2010 was 1.67%. Inclusion of some factors, like Mental Health and Self-Advocacy and Active Problem Resolution, was more successful, and the inclusion of other factors, like Evaluation and Treatment and Diversity of Individuals, requires improvement. This research provides a framework for writers creating new content regarding children’s stuttering and identifies areas where books have been previously successful and unsuccessful. The findings can be applied during the creation of new works for children who stutter and will hopefully benefit children in their experience with stuttering.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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