HEALTH PROFESSIONAL’S PERCEPTION OF DOMINANT PERSONALITY TRAITS OF STAMMERERS

Abstract

Background and Aim: Allied health professionals play an important role in therapy of stammering. So, this study was to assess the perception of health professionals regarding different dominant personality traits of stammerers as they devise the therapy and counselling techniques accordingly. Methodology: This observational study was conducted at the department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics; Children Hospital Lahore. The 25 bipolar semantic differential scales developed by Woods and William, was used in this study. A total of 100 health professionals were given the questionnaire. The health professionals involved in this study were Speech and Language Pathologists, Dev. Pediatricians, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Clinical Psychologists, Special Educationist and Nurses. Results: Sample size of this study was 100. Percentage of females was greater than males (88% vs 12%). Results showed that majority of the participants perceive stammerers as nervous, shy, cooperative, friendly, talkative, sensitive, anxious, fearful, perfectionist, intelligent, emotional, aggressive, self-conscious, self-pitying, guarded, introvert. Conclusion: In this study many health professionals considered that there are many negative personality traits that are dominant among stammerers that had to be addressed seriously. Along with negative traits, there are some positive dominant traits of stammerers according health professionals’ perception.