Abstract
Objective: To develop and validate tool for identification of barriers for implementation of stammering support groups in Pakistan for professionals.
Methodology: This exploratory study using convenience sampling was conducted at National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine from October to November 2018 in two phases. In phase 1, tool named “Barriers in implementation of stammering support group in Pakistan” was developed with items were constructed by experts and literature review followed by validation. In Phase 2 the developed tool was piloted on a sample of 20 SLP’s to analyze its reliability including Cronbach alpha and Test-retest reliability using SPSS 21.
Results: Study developed a 20 items tool having three domains including Personal barriers domain (5 items), Organizational/environmental domain (9 items) and attitudinal domain (6 items). In addition to Face validity the Convent validity of items was >0.83 with Relevance-0.98, Clarity-0.97, Simplicity-0.94 & Ambiguity-0.93 indicating excellent Content validity. As regards Reliability, Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient =0.732 at test and 0.682 at retest, being close to 1.0, indicating high level of internal consistency. Also test and re-test Pearson correlation coefficient was >0.7 for all items in three domains and total scale, hence it has good test-retest reliability.
Conclusion: The developed tool “Barriers in Implementation of Stammering Support Groups in Pakistan” (BISSGP) is a locally standardized tool with good reliable and validity for identification of barriers for implementation of stammering support groups in Pakistan for professionals. However, it should be used with caution as it has been standardized on a small sample of Islamabad.

Key words: Barriers, stammering, stuttering, support groups.