Do SSI-3 Scores Adequately Reflect Observations of Stuttering Behaviors?

An examination of the extent to which SSI-3 scores accurately reflect judges' observations of stuttering behaviors was conducted. A preliminary study was performed in order to achieve comparability with the SSI-3 procedure in terms of speech samples, data collection, SSI-3 scores, and reliability procedures and results. Subsequent to successful replication of those methods and results, the relationships of judges' counts/ratings of stuttering frequency, duration, and physical concomitant behaviors to the corresponding SSI-3 scores were examined. Obtained SSI-3 scores obscured the wide range of judges' raw counts and ratings of stuttering behaviors and, overall, did not accurately reflect the observational data from which they were derived. In addition, SSI-3 Severity Level agreement was found to be essentially identical to agreement levels for purely subjective ratings of severity. These results, along with concerns related to SSI-3 judge reliability procedures, are discussed.

Key Words: stuttering, assessment, reliability, validity

Submitted on November 10, 1994
Accepted on March 22, 1995

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