Teacher Perceptions of Elementary Students with an Articulation Disorder of Varying Degrees

The purpose of this study is to examine teacher perceptions of elementary students who have an articulation disorder. An electronic survey was given to 20 teachers in two elementary schools within Pike Township. The teachers rated six fictitious student profiles on competence, intelligence, and various behaviors. Given a standard Likert scale, the different fictitious profiles yielded a score that correlated to how positively the teachers viewed the student. To get valid results, there were control profiles with no label and two other disorders to act as a foil. It was hypothesized that the ratings would show that typically developing students have the highest scores. The profiles for fictitious students with behavioral challenge and learning disability are the foils and were predicted to have the lowest ratings. It was also hypothesized that the two profiles with varying severity of an articulation disorder would be rated somewhere in the middle and rated lower than typically developing students using tests of statistical significance. In actuality, the majority of results determined teachers do not have negative views of a student with an articulation disorder.