Investigating stuttering knowledge levels of psychological counseling and guidence teachers: Samsun sample

Developmental stuttering is a fluent speech disorder that begins in childhood and is characterized by repetitions, prolongations and blocks in speech. Given that children spend a significant amount of time at school, teachers, as the primary adults they interact with, play a crucial role in early identification of stuttering, making them one of the most important professional groups for recognizing stuttering (Abdalla & St. Louis, 2014; Al-Qaisi et al., 2020; Gottwald & Hall, 2003; Irani et al., 2012; Rocha et al., 2022). It is important for school guidance and counseling (SGC) teachers to have sufficient knowledge about stuttering, as they are highly likely to encounter children and adolescents with stuttering in the school environment. The aim of this study is to examine the knowledge levels of SGC teachers regarding stuttering before and after an informative training session in Atakum district of Samsun province, Turkey. The research design employed in this study is a single-group pretest-posttest comparison. Sixty-eight SGC teachers participated in the research, and they were administered the "Survey on Teachers' Knowledge Level about Stuttering." The survey was developed by reviewing teacher awareness surveys and relevant articles in the field of stuttering. After completing the survey for the first time, the teachers received face-to-face training from the researchers. One month after the completion of the training, the survey was administered to the teachers again. The findings indicate a significant difference between the pre-training and post-training survey data (p<.05). On the other hand, a significant difference was found in the section of the survey that explores behavior patterns and classroom strategies (p<.05). In conclusion, the findings of the study indicate that the knowledge levels of SGC teachers regarding stuttering were limited before the training. The training provided effectively increased both their knowledge level about stuttering and their knowledge level about behavior patterns and classroom strategies related to stuttering. These results demonstrate that with proper education, teachers can work more consciously and effectively in the field of stuttering. Keywords: Stuttering, Guidance and counseling teachers, School, Level of knowledge on stuttering