The role of personal epistemology in selection of stuttering treatment

Abstract

Clinicians’ personal epistemology about stuttering and knowledge may directly affect their clinical decision-making process. The purpose of the current study was to obtain a better understanding of the relationship between clinicians’ epistemological beliefs and their selection of stuttering treatment – fluency shaping or stuttering modification. This study (a) examines the clinicians’ beliefs about the structure and complexity of knowledge and (b) investigates whether clinicians adapt a particular form of epistemological beliefs specific to their treatment preference with persons who stutter (PWS). Participants were 174 certified speech-language pathologists who responded to questionnaires that included a stuttering-specific epistemological beliefs scale and predominant ways of knowing. Results indicate that persons who have higher levels of separate knowing have a preference for the fluency shaping approach with PWS. People who believe knowledge is more complex and is always changing have a preference for the stuttering modification approach. The findings of the current study suggest that clinicians’ personal epistemology (rather than the tenets of evidence-based practice) may be playing a significant role in some clinical decisions.