Awareness and Knowledge of Stuttering Among Malaysian School-Aged Children: An Exploratory Study

INTRODUCTION: Knowledge and awareness of stuttering are closely associated with attitudes toward stuttering. Few studies have been conducted on the knowledge and awareness of school-aged children, and none have been conducted in Malaysia. This study aimed to: (a) determine knowledge and awareness of stuttering among Malaysian school-aged children, and (b) determine whether there are differences between age group, gender and PWS exposure groups.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 192 Malay school-aged children (mean age = 9.47, SD = 1.781) recruited via email and social media platforms. They completed a Malay version of the questionnaire devised by van Borsel et al. (1999) on various aspects of stuttering, including prevalence, onset, gender distribution, occurrence in different cultures, cause, treatment, intelligence, and heredity of stuttering. The chi-square test of independence was performed to compare the distributions of survey responses by age group, gender and PWS exposure group.

RESULTS: Around half of the school-age children had met a person who stutters, but certain aspects of their knowledge were limited. Knowledge also differed according to age and gender. Girls were more knowledgeable about stuttering than boys. Regarding stuttering treatment, younger children had more positive attitudes than older children. Participants who did not know a PWS were more likely to consult their family doctor rather than a speech-language pathologist in relation to stuttering.

CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge and awareness of stuttering among Malaysian school-aged children were limited. Findings of this study could be used to develop a stuttering awareness program specific to children to increase their knowledge and awareness about stuttering.