Table 3.
Social validity and acceptability questionnaire responses for n = 8 participants in the STEPS 1.1 group.
| Item | M (SD; range) | Representative quote(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Participating in STEPS increased my counseling confidence. | 6.78 (0.44; 6–7) | “STEPS showed me how effective rephrasing what the client says is at making them feel important and understood.” (D4) “Even after watching a few videos, I felt much more relaxed and open, though certainly not the best at counseling. I was also more aware of my actions and the actions/words of the client.” (B4) |
| 2. Participating in STEPS increased my counseling competence (i.e., my ability or skill level). | 6.33 (0.87; 5–7) | “I felt much more comfortable in the second evaluation than I did in the first, and believe I was able to gain more knowledge from the client the second time around.” (D2) “My skill level in counseling parents of individuals with CSD has definitely increased. I do not know if my ability to counsel the individuals themselves (with CSD) has increased. For instance, are these techniques still applicable when interviewing a child who stutters?” (A6) |
| 3. STEPS was easy to use. | 7 | “I liked being able to replay the video as many times as I needed, and I felt like I learned something from the computer portion of STEPS.” (A6) |
| 4. I enjoyed participating in STEPS. | 7 | “I am hoping to specialize in fluency disorders in grad school and I am so glad I had the opportunity to participate in this and start getting some knowledge on what exactly stuttering entails and how to handle initial evaluations!” (A4) “It felt way more personal than my day-to-day classwork, and that personal experience with clients is what drew me to becoming an SLP in the first place.” (A6) |
| 5. Participating in STEPS was worth my time. | 7 | “I truly feel more prepared to counsel clients than before the STEPS program.” (A6) |
| 6. What did you like about STEPS? | “What I like about it is that I am only a second year SLP major and was able to have this experience that really opened my eyes.” (A2) “I like that it offered both written/module-type lessons to prepare me and make me think about things I wouldn't have noticed myself and later it allowed me to apply it to a real-life scenario.” (B4) “I enjoyed getting multiple opportunities to exhibit what I learned here.” (C1) “I really liked all of the videos varying in good and bad.” (C2) “I liked how many video examples it provided. This really helped me understand what effective and ineffective listening looks like.” (D4) |
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| 7. What did you dislike about STEPS? What would you change for future users? | “Include a different module for counseling the clients who stutter, since this module seemed focused on counseling the parents of clients who stutter. I would love to participate in something like that!” (A6) “Perhaps some more variety in examples of how different clients behave in counseling.” (B4) “I think that adding some short videos about what types of questions to ask clients to get them to talk more about their feelings would be helpful. Also, videos about common stuttering myths and how to explain to the client that they are false would be great.” (D4) “I don't think I disliked anything, but I would maybe allow for a second submission of a modified response to the client after seeing the efficient response. This could make for good practice on what open ended questions could look like.” (D2) |
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| 8. Please share your comments regarding the duration of STEPS (i.e., the length of STEPS as a whole). | “The program was the perfect amount of time in my opinion.” (C1) “I thought the length was perfect. It was long enough that I easily remembered the information but not too long that I got bored.” (D4) |
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| 9. Additional feedback | “I'm impressed with how much I gained from this experience, which only lasted about 1 hour! I certainly feel like I've gotten more valuable information than I would have gotten from an average hour of class.” (A6) “Absolutely loved having the opportunity to participate in STEPS! I feel like this is going to be very beneficial for my future as an SLP and it gave me so much excitement for the next few years I will spend continuing to learn more about this field!” (A4) “Thank you so much for this experience. I believe I am walking away with a lot more knowledge and confidence.” (D2) |
Note. Items were based on Pehrson et al. (2016) and Thistle and McNaughton (2015). Responses were provided on a Likert scale from 1 (extremely disagree) to 7 (extremely agree). When a single representative quote is presented, that was the only qualitative feedback for that item. The letter–number combinations (e.g., A6) represent each participant's anonymous code. STEPS = Simulated Training in Evidence-Based Practice for Stuttering; SLP = speech-language pathologist.