Understanding the Perspectives of School Children Who Stutter: A Rapid Review.
Alhanouf Yosef Alhazimi, Clare Carroll, Mary-Pat O'Malley-Keighran
PMID 40583622WHAT IT FOUND
Most research on children who stutter uses verbal interviews and written questions, often failing to offer choice in how children express themselves.
Few studies capture the child's unique perspective on their speech, highlighting a need for multimodal tools like drawing and photography.
Key findings
01The review found a significant lack of studies that explore children's viewpoints exclusively, with most included studies having other primary objectives such as assessing therapy outcomes.
02Open-ended questions within semi-structured interviews were the most prevalent method, and the predominant mode of response was verbal or written, with no study mentioning if children were given a choice of communication method.
03Children expressed a strong desire to speak out and participate in school discussions, but many studies did not clarify if the data collection space was chosen by the child or if consent was obtained in a child-friendly manner.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The search was limited to English-language, peer-reviewed articles, excluding grey literature like dissertations, which may have missed relevant studies. The included studies did not consistently categorize participants by specific age groups within the 6-12 range, potentially overlooking developmental differences between younger and older school-age children. The rapid review format may have reduced the depth of analysis compared to a full systematic review. Many included studies had mixed methods, making it difficult to isolate the specific contribution of the qualitative components to the overall findings.
Declared interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that using interviews means you are hearing the child's true perspective. This review found that most studies relied on verbal or written responses without offering children a choice in communication mode, and many failed to clarify if the child understood the process or had any influence on the outcome, suggesting a risk of tokenistic participation rather than authentic engagement.