The Stuttering Truth: Uncovering the Prevalence and Impact Amongst School Children in the Ablekuma South District, Ghana

What is already known on this subject Several studies have explored the prevalence of stuttering, its impact, and its prevalence amongst school-aged children. The majority of these studies took place in developed nations that provide early screening and intervention services for school-aged children. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This study, the first in Ghana, adds to our understanding of stuttering amongst school-aged children. The prevalence of stuttering amongst this population is 2.77%, and males are eight times at risk of stuttering than females. The findings suggest that most school-aged children in Ghana experience moderate to severe impacts on their overall quality of life due to stuttering. Additionally, children who stutter in Ghana face challenges in accessing speech and language therapy services or social support through self-help groups. What are the potential or actual clinical implications for this work? A significant number of school-aged children who stutter in a developing nation such as Ghana have no access to clinical services or formal support. Speech and language pathologists (SLPs) need to collaborate with educators to implement early screening and the identification of children who stutter. SLPs need to follow up after the identification of stuttering to provide speech and language therapy services to ensure children are not adversely impacted by it and, where necessary, refer them for psychological support.