IBSR Intervention for Adults Who Stutter

The purpose of OASES-A questionnaire is to assess the overall stuttering experience of adults who stutter. It quantifies the quality of life, satisfaction and overall personal experience of the adult in his daily coping with stuttering. The items in the questionnaire are divided into four main sections: 1. General information on stuttering awareness and perception. 2. Reactions to stuttering. 3. Communication in daily situations. 4. Quality of life.

The OASES-A total score is obtained by summing the scores of the four different sections. In this trial we used the Hebrew version of this questionnaire. OASES-A total score and the score for each of the sections (in the Hebrew version) is ranging from 1.0 to 5.0. The score rates the severity of the stuttering experience, where 1.0 indicates a mild impact rating and 5.0 a severe impact rating (higher scores indicate a more negative impact of stuttering) (Freud et al., 2017; Yaruss & Quesal, 2006).

The STAI questionnaire assess the tendency of adults to experience anxiety and to inspect their sensitivity to anxiety-provoking situations. The questionnaire distinguishes between two scales of anxiety: anxiety as a state and anxiety as a trait. State anxiety is a person's tendency to experience anxiety in certain situations and times, depending on their context. Trait anxiety is a person's constant and stable tendency to experience anxiety frequently.

Each item is rated on a 4-point Likert scale. After completing the questionnaire, items scores are added to obtain total scores. Responders receives 2 separate total scores, one for each of the scales. The maximum score for each scale is 80 and the minimum score is 20. In both scales, scores between 20 to 40 is considered normal in the general adult population. The higher the score, the higher the anxiety level (Spielberger et al., 1970; Taychman & Malinek, 1984).

The aim of PFQ questionnaire is to measure the psychological flexibility of the test responder. Psychological flexibility describes a person's ability to be open, to perceive change as positive, to focus on the present and to change or persist in behavior according to changes of internal and external circumstances. The questionnaire consists of 20 items rated on a 6-point Likert scale. Each item is associated with one of 5 factors that refers to a significant domain in psychological flexibility. The 5 factors are: 1. Positive perception of change. 2. Characterization of the self as flexible. 3. Self-characterizing as open and innovative. 4. A perception of reality as dynamic and changing. 5. A perception of reality as "multifaceted". The score of the questionnaire is calculated based on the mean of the 20 items. Higher score indicates high level of psychological flexibility (Ben-Itzhak et al., 2014).

The SWLS questionnaire evaluates the person's overall satisfaction with life, based on personal criteria that he defined for himself and based on his perception of life. In the questionnaire, there is 5 items that the subjects are required to rate using a 7-point Likert scale. The five items are summed to create a total score that ranged from 5 to 35, with a higher score indicates greater satisfaction with the subject's life. A final grade in the range of 30-35 is a very high score, indicating a person with great satisfaction and very satisfied with his life (Diener, 1994; Diener et al., 1985).