Stuttering-Like Behaviors in ASL Cripps et al.
Years using ASL:
Less 5 years
6-10 years
11-20 years
More than 20 years
Did not respond 21 (14%)
11 (7%)
24 (16%)
81 (53%)
15 (10%)
Interaction with ASL Stuttering:
Yes
No
Not sure
Did not respond 90 (59%)
29 (19%)
18 (12%)
15 (10%)
With regards to educational background, roughly one half of the respondents had Master’s
degrees (81 respondents, 51%) and the majority worked at in a school-based environment (which
requires a Master’s degree for employment). Most of the respondents were proficient in ASL (129
as compared to 22 respondents with lack of proficiency in ASL); however, when the respondents
rated their proficiency level in ASL, 119 of them responded that they were native (49 respondents,
32%), near-native (48 respondents, 32%), or conversational (22 respondents, 14%) signers. All
participants indicated that they could sign (and only a small percentage indicated weak signing
skills). Moreover, 22 respondents reported signing at the conversational level, which suggests that
they have completed two years of ASL study (or more). The majority of participants reported using
ASL for more than 11 years (105 respondents, 69%) whereas 21 (14%) participants reported
having less than 5 years of experience using ASL.
At the end of the first part of the survey, the respondents were asked to think of deaf
individuals who exhibited stuttering-like behaviors using the signed language modality. Ninety
participants (59%) reported that they had experience interacting with deaf individuals who
exhibited stuttering-like behaviors in ASL, while the remaining 62 respondents (41%) reported
that they did not have any experience.
Observations of Stuttering-like Behaviors in ASL
The 90 respondents who affirmed their observations of ‘signed stuttering’ proceeded with
the second part of the questionnaire, which asked about the eight characteristics (of ‘signed
stuttering’ from Whitebread list) and other related questions. Five respondents failed to complete
this part of the survey, which left a total sample size of 85. Results regarding stuttering-like
behaviors when signing and individuals’ backgrounds are shown in Table 2. Of the 85 deaf
individuals who exhibited stuttering-like behaviors, 75 % were males and 25 % were females. The
overall pattern of results indicated that the respondents identified their observational experiences
with all eight characteristics from the Whitehead list, while three characteristics were marked most
frequently: 1) Hesitation of sign movement (20%); 2) Repetition of sign movement (17%); and
Poor fluidity of the sign (16%). A small number of the respondents (i.e., 9%) reported that they
were not sure how to label the stuttering-like behaviors they witnessed in ASL.
SASLJ, Vol. 2, No.1 – Spring/Summer 2018
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