A controlled investigation of the effectiveness of telepractice for chronic stuttering: Mixed method study

The aim of this study was to compare therapy outcomes between on-site therapy and tele-therapy groups and to explore tele-therapy experiences of participants. The participants of this study were 20 adults. Depending on participants' preferences and conditions, they were appointed to tele-therapy and on-site groups equally. The participants of tele-therapy group had received tele-therapy services from eight different cities. In stuttering therapy; fluency shaping, stuttering modification and counselling approaches were used in an integrated manner. The design of this study was convergent parallel design which is a mixed research method that uses quantitative and qualitative data. Within the scope of quantitative research, non-inferiority controlled trial; pre-test, post-test, follow-up semi-experimental designs were used. On the other hand, in qualitative research, phenomenology approach was used. The primary quantitative data of this research consisted of stuttered syllables rates in three stiuations, scores of SSI-4 regarding evaluation of stuttering and the self-evaluations of participants. The secondary data consisted of scores of perceptual severity of stuttering and speech naturalness, OASES and SL-ILP-S scores regarding attitudes. The qualitative data of this research consisted of data which is obtained from semi-structured interviews. Tele-therapy and on-site groups significantly reduced their scores on objective clinical data and stuttered syllables rates. In post-test and/or follow-up phases, significant differences were not found between data which was obtained from these two groups (p>.05). According to qualitative analysis 90% of participants reported that they found tele-therapy suitable for themselves and benefited from this service. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative findings indicated that these data sets are compatible in general and they authenticate each other. In this research, it was observed that tele-therapy is a suitable method in providing services to individuals who stutter and is as effective as on-site therapy service delivery method.