Behavior Assessment Battery© (BAB): un approccio evidence-based alla valutazione e al trattamento dei bambini che balbettano. Studio normativo e comparativo sui bambini italiani che balbettano e che non balbettano

Introduction and aims of the study: the self-report measures that make up the Behavior Assessment Battery (BAB) for children have been internationally investigated and shown to be reliable and valid test procedures. The cross-cultural data relative to emotional reaction and speech disruption in speech situations (Speech Situation Checklist), speech-associated attitude (Communication Attitude Test) and coping behaviour (Behavior Checklist), are in overwhelming agreement. They indicate scores that significantly differentiate children who stutter (CWS) from children who do not stutter (CWNS) on each of the BAB test procedures. The need, in Italy, for standardized assessment tools that incorporate a person who stutter affective, cognitive and behavioural accounts, has been recognized in recent years. However, currently, no Italian evaluation tools are available that incorporate the viewpoint of the person who stutters. The purpose of this study was to obtain normative data for Italian children who stutter and those who do not on this test battery, and to determine if Italian CWS and CWNS differ in speech-associated emotional reaction, speech disruption, speech-associated attitude and coping behaviours. Methods: the Italian translation of the BAB was administered, in accord with the test protocol, to Italian CWS and CWNS who were recruited from a National Health Service to either the Centro Medico di Foniatria in Padua or in Turin, Italy. None of these children had previously received fluency treatment or were in therapy at the time of this study. Results: the results of this normative and comparative study show that Italian CWS and CWNS differ significantly on each of the BAB test procedures. Conclusion: the BAB has been subject to international investigations. The current normative data on Italian CWS and CWNS are in considerable agreement with the findings of previous cross-cultural studies of the BAB's test procedures. They indicate that these two groups respond in discriminatively different ways.