Microaggression and the adult stuttering experience.
Geoffrey A Coalson, Alexus Crawford, Shanley B Treleaven and 5 others
PMID 34954647WHAT IT FOUND
Adults who stutter described frequent microaggressions, particularly patronizing comments like "slow down" and being treated as helpless or less intelligent.
Many also reported feeling abandoned by speech therapy or judged by clinicians. Participants often excused these behaviors to avoid appearing overly sensitive.
Key findings
01All seven participants reported experiencing patronization, such as unearned praise or invalidating comments like "you didn't stutter," and second-class status, including being treated as helpless or intellectually inferior.
02Five of the seven participants reported clinical microaggressions, including feeling abandoned by therapy goals or being patronized by clinicians who offered simplistic advice like "slow down" or "take a breath."
03Four of the seven participants frequently exonerated the listener, rationalizing microaggressive behavior as unintentional or unavoidable, partly to avoid confirming the stereotype that people who stutter are overly sensitive.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small (n=7) and skewed toward cisgender, heterosexual, college-educated, Caucasian males, limiting generalizability to women, people of color, and those with different educational backgrounds. Self-selection bias was possible, as three of the ten recruited participants did not attend. The researchers' backgrounds in speech-language pathology and stuttering may have influenced the interpretation of the data, despite efforts to mitigate bias. No formal measure of stuttering severity was taken, so it is unclear if experiences varied by severity.
Declared interests
The primary investigator is a speech-language pathologist and a person who stutters. The study was approved by the Louisiana State University Institutional Review Board.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these themes as a comprehensive or definitive account of all microaggressions experienced by people who stutter. The study was preliminary, with a small and homogeneous sample, and the authors explicitly state the framework is not exhaustive.