Integration of individual variables of middle childhood children who stutter into intensive group therapy

In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating individual desensitization activities into intensive group therapy, to reveal some characteristics of stuttering and emotion relations and to propose a new stuttering therapy program for middle childhood children who stutter. The study was conducted at the Department of Speech and Language Therapy at Hacettepe University. Eleven children within the age interval of 96-133 months, who stutter with mild to moderate severity were included in the study. Children were assessed five times with SSI-4 and CALMS. Ten days of stuttering therapy was applied. Data for emotion analysis were collected via wearable technology and for the emotion facial action coding system via video and sound recordings. In the control group, at the stuttering level, a group improvement of >60% was observed, while in the remaining half of the group, 100% improvement was observed. In the study group, 100% improvement in three persons, 75% improvement in one person was observed. Statistically significant differences were not observed in pre- and post-stuttering moments in the data collected via wearable technology for emotion analysis (p > 0,05). Analysis made by the emotion facial action coding system revealed that children who exhibited positive emotional expressions prior to stuttering event benefited 12.5 times (p = 0,025) and children who exhibited neutral facial expressions were benefited 5 times (p = 0,005) more from therapy than children exhibiting negative emotional facial expressions. The results encourage continued research on this program.