Introduction: Research has shown that adults who stutter have reacted with increased skin conductance and lower heart rates when confronted with videos of severe stuttering compared to videos of fluent speech. It has not been clearly established how these physiological indices or autonomic arousals are related to stuttering attitudes. The current study sought to compare physiological and psychometric measures of anxiety with stuttering attitudes.
Method: In a multiple-baseline design, 18 normal hearing university students listened to short samples of stuttered, masked, and normally fluent speech while their skin conductance and heart rate variability were being monitored by an Empatica E4 wristband device. Pre-experimentally and after each speech condition, they rated their comfort level on a 1–9 scale. Participants filled out the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI ) (Spielberger, 1977) prior to the physiological measures and the short state anxiety inventory afterwards. At the end, they filled out the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering (POSHA–S).
Results: No significant main effects were observed for either autonomic measure for the three speech conditions, but interactions were significant. Individual participant analysis revealed that every respondent reacted differently to the skin conductance or heart rate variability. By contrast, mean subjective comfort ratings were more often lower after hearing stuttered or masked speech and higher after hearing fluent speech. Correlations between all the measures and the POSHA–S summary scores revealed little relationship between the autonomic measures and stuttering attitudes, but higher levels of state or trait anxiety were associated with more positive beliefs about people who stutter. In contrast, lower levels of anxiety tended to be associated with more positive self-reactions to those who stutter.
Conclusion: This study did not replicate previous reports of heightened autonomic reactions to stuttering among nonstuttering adults, although psychometric measures suggest a relationship between anxiety and stuttering attitudes. Further research should explore these relationships, especially with young children.

Compared to other speech disorders, stuttering does not show a high frequency. However, it concerns people of different ages, living in different times and places, and coming from different backgrounds. For people who stutter, this condition is often a source of frustration and stress. Unfortunately, as research shows, in the whole society the level of knowledge about stuttering is not high, and people who do not speak fluently often experience negative social reactions (ridicule, derision, low assessment of their potential). Research confirms this by using standardized tools: POSHA-S/C and POSHA-S-Child. Among the reasons for the dissemination of the stereotypical image of stuttering and of myths on this subject are its representations in feature films. However, it is to be hoped that the documentaries made in recent years will bring about changes in this image.
In their article Agnieszka Płusajska-Otto and Agnieszka Myszka attempt to assess whether confronting students with the content of a full-length documentary about stuttering (When I stutter) can change the perception of this condition among respondents and, above all, whether such an experience can change social attitudes towards stuttering and stereotypical ideas about stutterers. The research, which included the use of the diagnostic survey method, was carried out on a group of 158 students from two Polish universities (the University of Rzeszów and the Stefan Batory State University in Skierniewice). The respondents completed questionnaires before and after the screening of the film. The results of the conducted analysis clearly showed a change in attitudes towards stutterers. Before the event, respondents believed that there were numerous impediments preventing stutterers from carrying out many professions (mainly those of the speech therapist, the teacher, and the actor). After the screening, they changed their views on this issue and most of them no longer saw any impediments. Before the screening, 2/3 of the respondents considered stuttering people to be nervous, shy, and insecure. After watching the film, the prevailing opinion was that above all they are brave and sensitive. In the PRE survey, respondents suggested that stutterers should put more effort into working on their speech; after the screening, such suggestions there were decidedly fewer, and statements about acceptance and praise dominated.
All participants of the meetings emphasized the need to disseminate films and organize events that familiarize the public with the problems of people struggling with disabilities. The results of the research (both those presented in the article and those available in the literature on the subject) allow us to put forward the thesis that film – as a publicly available and relatively accessible medium – can play a significant role in the changing of attitudes towards people struggling with various disorders. Therefore, it not only can but must be used as a tool of raising public knowledge about all kinds of disorders, diseases, and indispositions.

In this article, the authors present the results of a survey on attitudes towards speech disfluency. The survey was conducted in Poland at the turn of 2020 among nearly 700 students and 100 teachers. The respondents answered questions about the fears and feelings that stutterers may have as well as about the attitudes towards people who stutter. In addition, Kamila Kuros-Kowalska and Natalia Moćko enquired among peers and teachers who have direct contact with a student struggling with speech disfluency about their opinions on the stereotypes concerning stuttering. A further section of the survey checked the respondents’ knowledge of the principles of effective communication, the therapeutic approach to stuttering, and the ways of discussing them in the classroom. Based on their research, Kuros-Kowalska and Moćko have identified similarities and differences between the teachers’ and students’ attitudes to stuttering.

The subject of Magdalena Knapek and Paulina Wójcik-Topór’s article is the diagnosis of dysphonia and dysphagia in toddlers who suffer from a vocal cord paralysis as a result of surgery. In their research, Knapek and Wójcik-Topór have used the case-study method, which seems to be the most appropriate way to diagnose the issue and to devise speech therapy. In the theoretical part of the article, they discuss swallowing and voice disorders in children with the paralysis of vocal folds as a consequence of surgery: their causes, symptoms, and the diagnostic possibilities. Next, they look at the methods of examining dysphagic and dysphonic disorders in a toddler patient who took part in an experimental-clinical trial conducted at the University Children’s Hospital in Kraków. In the practical, case-study, section of their article, Knapek and Wójcik-Topór present the phases of the diagnosis, conclusions, and suggestions. Moreover, they address the relation of the myofunctional diagnosis to the diagnosis of the child’s prelingual and linguistic skills in the aspect of communication and development. In the conclusion section, they argue for the need to conduct a parallel speechtherapy and medical diagnosis in this and similar cases.

The speech fluency disorder is a global phenomenon as it occurs in all societies. At the same time, there are many speech therapy methods for stuttering. The article presents the results of a study on the results obtained through one of these methods: the Palin PCI, or the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, used to treat a five-year-old boy who stutters. The study used a qualitative case-study research method, which included the use of several data sources: desk research, observation, as well as individual in-depth interviews with the parents. The study has shown that the use of the Palin PCI method reduced the boy’s disfluency and significantly changed the parents’ attitudes towards the boy’s stuttering.

Conducting a speech and language assessment with the mediation of an interpreter is one of the greater challenges facing speech-language pathologists (SLPs)1 both in the United States and worldwide when needing to assess linguistically and culturally different clients (McLeod & Verdon, 2017; Santhanam & Parveen, 2018). The process requires the collaboration of three parties: the service provider, in this case, the speech-language pathologist, the consumer (the client and/or parent, relative or spouse) and the interpreter. This paper provides an overview of the literature on perspectives of educational and medical speech-language pathologists and process and presents an outline of a program to train both the interpreter and the speech-pathologist simultaneously to reach a successful collaborative outcome.

Maria Faściszewska’s aim in this article is to present a therapeutic program which involves the use of Ben Furman’s Kids’ Skills (2010) method in the therapy of pre- and early-school stuttering children. The method is based on the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), as well as the Ericksonian therapies, systemic and narrative (Furman, 2010). Currently, speech and language therapists are increasingly drawing on the Solution Focused Brief Therapy when working with individuals with a variety of communication disorders including stuttering (Fourlas, Ntourou, 2021; Kelman, Nicholas, 2020; Nicholas, 2015).
When discussing the 15 steps of Ben Furman’s Kids’ Skills method and discussing the questions asked by a therapist and the techniques used, Faściszewska examines how this approach can be adapted to children who stutter. The key idea of Kids’ Skills method is that we can interpret a child’s problems in terms of their lack of certain skills which can be acquired. The aim of the method is to encourage and help the child to learn a new skill, while reinforcing the skills they already have, to help them overcome their difficulties.
The program is firmly based on a cooperation with the child’s closest social circle: their parents, their siblings, and the school. The therapy for pre- and early-school age children who stutter should integrate cognitive, behavioral, and affective components. The program outlines how the Kids’ Skills method can be used in four key areas of working with a stuttering child. These areas are: 1. Being open about stuttering; 2. Using techniques/strategies to control stuttering; 3. Communicating effectively; 4. Understanding and dealing with feelings, reactions, and beliefs associated with stuttering. This method allows for a great deal of flexibility and adaptation to the needs of pre- and early-school stuttering children and their parents/carers. However, the therapist must have an adequate understanding of the Kids’ Skills method, of the difficulties that may occur, of the emotions experienced by stutterers and their families. Experience in using different therapeutic methods with stuttering children is also required.

The present paper focuses on the desideratum of interlinguistic and interdiscursive contrastivity, delineated by Zofia Bilut-Homplewicz in 2013. Both types of contrastivity are presented with reference to linguistic research on the migration discourse in Poland and Germany. As a starting point, the author outlines interlinguistic and interdiscursive contrastivity. What follows is a comprehensive account of the comparative variables such as »migration, migration discourse, linguistic research on migration discourse« – each of which is discussed in relation to Poland, Germany or Germanspeaking countries and the Polish and German research. Within the framework of an interdiscursive and interlinguistic comparison, the focus of attention is particularly on the concept of topos and its operationalisation in both research areas.

The aim of this article is to present and discuss the lexical material collected among 5-year-old children concerning the understanding and interpreting twelve idiomatic expressions with the token head. The choice of the phrasemes was dictated by the idea to refer to the issues close to the child, encountered on a day to day basis, which are fixed in the linguistic tradition of sayings. Subject area of the idiomatic expressions was also supposed to encourage children to enunciate free statements about them. The study shows how children interpret selected metatextual phrases and how they define them using language.

The article contains a review of the book Too fast for words. How discovering that I don’t stutter but “clutter” changed my life (2020) by Rutger Wilhelm – a person experiencing cluttering and an active popularizer of knowledge about this disorder. The author of the review emphasizes the numerous advantages of the described publication: an accessible way of presenting the latest findings on cluttering, advice and recommendations for speech therapists, and exercises for use in therapy. She also highly appreciates the first part of the book, written in the form of a patient's therapeutic autobiography, revealing the emotions of a person struggling with cluttering. The only shortcoming indicated is the incorrectness of some bibliographic entries and the omission of some of the items mentioned in the footnotes from the literature list. The review is descriptive and contains a book recommendation.

The article contains a review of the publication Dialog bez barier – kompleksowa interwencja logopedyczna w jąkaniu [Dialogue without Barriers – a Comprehensive Speech Therapy Intervention in Stuttering] (2021) edited by Katarzyna Węsierska and Hilda Sønsterud – a compendium of theoretical and practical knowledge regarding stuttering, addressed to speech therapists, speech therapy students and other specialists dealing with chronic stuttering. The author of the review considers it particularly valuable that the chapters of the described publication were written by experts in the field of speech fluency disorders from around the world, and the topic was treated in a multi-aspect and multidisciplinary manner. Another advantage of the described book is that it is available in the open access formula on the Internet. The review is descriptive, and its author clearly recommends the book to readers. The only shortcomings indicated are: the lack of a chapter on etiological, biological and taxonomic issues, as well as the overuse of the word "client" to denote the subject of therapeutic interventions and the introduction to the reader of an opinion about the uniqueness of the publication.