Investigation of the effect of stuttering summer school activity on stuttering severity and stuttering experience in school-age children with stuttering

The primary aim of this study is to examine the impact of an intensive group therapy-based summer school program on the severity of stuttering and the experiences related to stuttering in school-aged children, aged 8-11, who struggle with stuttering. In this context, the general effectiveness of the program will be evaluated, considering the challenges children face in coping with stuttering as well as the emotional and social effects. This study involved a total of 8 children aged between 8 years and 11 years 11 months, with 4 children (3 boys, 1 girl) in the intervention group and 4 children (3 boys, 1 girl) in the control group. Designed using a single-group pre-test post-test and control group model, all participants were assessed using the Stuttering Severity Instrument-4 (SSI-4) before the study, immediately after the summer school program, and three months later. The Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES-S TR) and the Cognitive, Affective, Linguistic, Motor, and Social Assessment for Children Who Stutter (CALMS-TR) were also administered. In this experimental design with a single-group pre-test post-test approach, pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test measurements collected from the scales were compared. The research findings indicated significant improvements in the cognitive, emotional, and social components of the children in the intervention group. The results of the CALMS-TR scale revealed a significant difference between pre-test, post-test, and follow-up measurements (p = .038). Similarly, a statistically significant improvement was observed in the overall impact scores of the OASES scale (p = .039). A significant decrease was detected in the quality of life component (p < .05). However, the results of the KEŞİDA-4 scale showed that the change in stuttering severity was not statistically significant (p = .247). In the control group, no significant differences were found across all measurements (p > .05). The findings of our study demonstrated that group therapy-based intensive summer school programs have positive effects on the cognitive, emotional, and social domains related to stuttering and improve quality of life. However, it was concluded that additional interventions may be needed during follow-up processes to achieve long-term effects.