Primary school teachers' opinions and attitudes towards stuttering in two socio-economic quintiles within the Western Cape

Inlcudes bibliographical referencesTeachers form an important part of the multidisciplinary team as one of main communication intervention partners for children who stutter (CWS). Teachers' attitudes towards stuttering are therefore important as attitudes are likely to influence behaviour. Through determining their attitudes as well as examining the factors influencing their attitudes, speech - language therapists will be able to develop and implement professional development programmes specifically tailored for teachers, if needed. The primary aim of the study is to describe primary school teachers' attitudes toward stuttering related to their beliefs, reactions and classroom management strategies. Furthermore, it compares South African teachers' attitudes to the Public Opinion of Human Attributes – Stuttering (POSHA-S) database archive. As a secondary aim, the study explores the association between selected demographic factors and participants' attitudes toward stuttering. A quantitative, cross - sectional survey design was used. The POSHA-S was administered to a cluster randomised sample of 469 participant s in two education districts in the Western Cape. The results indicated an overall positive attitude toward stuttering. The attitudes of the South African sample were slightly more positive compared with the samples in current POSHA-S database. Analysis of the selected demographic factors revealed significant results for the teaching – related factors: quintile and years of teaching experience, and for personal factors: gender, first language, familiarity and age. The implications of these data for planning professional development programmes specifically tailored for the South African context are discussed