Nobody can deny the relation between the teacher and the student, and not only can this affect almost every behavior of the student and his image about himself but may also be reflected on his/her academic and social performance. This explains the need to assess the mindset and knowledge of teachers about those important aspects such as stuttering.
Since there is limited information about this subject in Egypt, we thought to figure out the magnitude of the trouble to start planning for the intervention.
First, we knew that there are some disadvantages in using questionnaires, and we tried to minimize it as much as possible by privacy protection to avoid incorrect responses, no sensitive questions, making sure the respondents understand the questions, and not making too long questionnaire.
Our study showed that the most reported symptom of stuttering is repetition which is present not only in stutterers but also in children with physiological dysfluency, so it is not diagnostic, while the more distinctive features of stuttering, as blocks and prolongations, are less commonly identified by teachers. Additionally, a small percentage reported seizure as a symptom of stuttering which is definitely not a symptom but can be a comorbidity, but this represents shortage of teachers’ knowledge.
Nervousness and shyness were the commonest beliefs about stutterers, denoting the severe psychosocial stress on them especially at school. St. Louis [11] who measured public attitude towards stuttering and described it as unsubstantiated stereotype holds that people believe about stutterers.
Most respondents believed that people who stutter can lead normal lives; however, they were less optimistic about whether stutterers can do any job they desire. Also, Irani et al. [12] reported that the teachers in their study seem to consider that careers that require more speaking are not well-suited for PWS.
The results also confirm the well-known confusion about the cause of stuttering. Phoniatricians agree for a genetic causal component and less certainty about psychological or learning components. Unfortunately, the majority believed the cause is exposure to a frightening event which is a common belief among the public population. These results go with St. Louis [11] who found that some people believe that stuttering is caused by a force of God.
A comparison between the teachers in this study and Arab parents in a study by Al-Khaledi et al. [13] revealed similar gaps in teachers’ knowledge about stuttering (e.g., etiology of stuttering) as well as in the stereotypical beliefs they held about PWS (e.g., “shy” or “fearful”). Such prejudice would put the student who stutters at an obvious disadvantage as the surrounding environment, including home and school, is not helping him which makes him suffers.
The best news about what teachers report if they found themselves talking to someone who stutters is trying to act as if the student is talking normally These results goes with St. Louis [11] who reported that most people would ignore the stuttering.
Our study showed that the most consistent advice teachers in Egypt believed would help the person who stutters is to tell the person to “take a deep breath.” The next common suggestion was asking PWS to “think before speaking” followed by recommending “slow down or relax.” This is consistent with the study by Abdalla and St. Louis [5] that revealed that the most consistent advice teachers in Kuwait believed would help the person who stutters is to allow the individual to repeat until the word comes out. All of this is opposite to what is supposed to be done; according to the Stuttering Foundation [14], advising the stutterers to follow the mentioned instruction would only makes a person more aware of the problem, aggrevating the stuttering. It is better to listen patiently, and modeling slows and clears speech yourself.
Although praising the stutterer free speech is used in a lot of well-known techniques to manage stuttering, unfortunately, it is the least reported strategy to be used by teachers. The second least is excusing the student from talking in front of the class if he/she does not want, which adds to the social tension of the stutterer and leads to the development of avoidance.
The high percent of opinions about referring to a pediatrician can be explained by the fact that most people believe that pediatrician can treat all the flaws in children. Although good percentage reported referral to the phoniatrician, but there is still deficiency in the knowledge about the role of phoniatrician.
Almost most of teachers reported the source of information from their studies because we included only teachers who graduated from Faculty of Education. Since a lot of teachers graduated from other faculties (e.g., math teachers from Faculty of Commerce, science teachers from Faculty of Medicine or Pharmacy), their knowledge is expected to be even worse. Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the role of the media in delivering such important awareness about stuttering, since the television, radio, and movies were reported as the second source of information.
About 29% of the teachers had direct contact with a student who stutters in their classrooms. One would presume that the teachers may have drawn knowledge of stuttering from experience with PWS, and that those who knew PWS would express more realistic attitudes towards the disorder. Actually, the correlation between reactions of teachers when talking with stutterer and period of experience in teaching showed that those teachers with more experience in teaching are adopting some favorable reactions like ignoring the stuttered speech, asking the stutterer to think before talking, but they could not deny their uncomfortable feeling when talking with a stutterer.
The correlation between reactions of teachers when talking with stutterer and period of experience in teaching showed that the more the experience, the better the reactions, like ignoring the stuttering and asking the student to slow down and take deep breath, also the less likely the unfavorable reaction like making fun of stutterer. This signifies the important role of experience in teachers.
The limitation in our study is that we included only governmental schools, and of course the situation can be different in private school and including teachers not graduated from Faculty of Education. Also, we recommend further studies to include the academic level of stutter students and to examine the situation in rural areas.
To sum up, although there is moderate awareness in teachers’ knowledge and attitude, it is not adequate. Teachers need training to address the special needs of stutterer students, to identify the symptoms, the behavior, and feelings of stutterers first, and to learn alternative reaction and techniques to deal with these students. Group work orientations, programs, lectures, and workshops can be organized for the teachers in order to prevent further mental and social damage.
