Person-first labeling and stuttering

Abstract

Four groups of subjects, speech-language-hearing impaired clients, parents of clients, speech-language pathology students, and the general public, reacted to 28 words used to label individuals. Twelve words were either person-first (e.g., “Stutterer”) or direct labels (e.g., “Person who stutters”) and 16 were identical anchor labels in alternate forms of questionnaires. Nine labels identified speech, language, or hearing disorders. Highly variable subjects groups were surprisingly similar in judgments about their own personal impressions and experiences as well as the appropriateness of use by others for all the labels. Person-first labeling was regarded as significantly more positive in only 2% of the comparisons, and all of these in favor of “Person with leprosy” or “Person with psychosis” over “Leper” or “Psychotic.” Person-first labeling did not make a difference in any of the speech-language terms, including variants for “stuttering” or “stammering.” Overall, person-first terminology did little to lessen negative beliefs and attitudes for the speech-language pathology labels assessed. This study draws into question recent policies promoting person-first labeling.