Evaluation of attitudes and awarenesses of speech and language therapists in Turkey towards cluttering

The purpose of this study is to provide an insight to the professional awareness and attitudes towards cluttering among speech and language therapists working actively in Turkey. Study desing is descriptive desing based on comparison between sample groups. Total number of participant SLTs' is 82. A 61 item questionairre was formed on the basis of Rustin Cluttering Survey (RCS) and The Clinician Attitudes Towards Stuttering Inventory (CATS) and sent to the SLTs in Turkey. Results of this study indicate that SLTs' in Turkey see their cluttering practice during their education period as inadequate. The SLTs' who experienced clutterers during their education and who didn't, show significant difference at the samples of their adequacy to work with clutterers, and their preference to add clutterers to their caseloads. In the light of these findings experience with clutterers during education is effective on SLTs' professional life. There are statisticaly significant differences between the SLTs who work with clutterers on their caseloads and who don't. Their answers to the categories 'SLT education, effectivenes of therapy, personalities and symptoms of clutterers, therapy/method, etiology, cluttering vs other speech disorders, parents of clutterers' create the difference. According to these findings, the SLTs' experience on clutterers in their professional life affects their attitudes and opinions towards cluttering and people with cluttering.