Australian normative data for the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering

Abstract

People who stutter often report negative impacts on their wellbeing as a result of their chronic fluency disorder. The need for a comprehensive assessment of the wellbeing and experience of stuttering should be a prime consideration when measuring treatment outcomes. One such measure designed to evaluate wellbeing and aspects of the individual's experience of his or her stuttering is the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES). Normative data for the OASES Adult version (OASES-A; and hereafter referred to simply as the OASES) has begun to be collected over the past 10 years, though none are available for an Australian population. This paper presents Australian normative data for the OASES for 200 adult males and females who stutter, aged between 18 and 85 years. Additionally, the influence of age, sex, and frequency of stuttering on the Australian OASES scores are also presented. No significant relationships between OASES scores were found for sex and age, which is in keeping with the USA original dataset. However, those participants who had more severe stuttering were more likely to have higher negative impacts for ‘General Information’, Communication in Daily Situations,’ and for the overall OASES score. Implications for further research are discussed.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (i) describe the purpose of the Overall Experience of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for Adults (OASES), (ii) evaluate the relevance of the OASES to treatment planning and the evaluation of stuttering treatment outcomes in the adult population, and (iii) compare Australian normative dataset with the USA and Dutch normative datasets for the OASES.