EN
Introduction. The reactions of the father and the mother to a child’s speech disfluency arelikely to differ. The question also arises as to what factors form their reactions. Aim. The aim of the study was the comparison of the mothers’ and the fathers’ reactions to a child’s speech impediment, the assessment of emotional intelligence presented by the parents of children who stutter, as well as establishing the relationship between the emotional intelligence of the parents and their reaction to a child’s speech impediment. Material and method. The research involved 30 mothers and 30 fathers of 3-6-year-old stutterers (comprising 22 boys and 8 girls). Results. Reactions of the mothers and fathers to a child’s speech disfluency are similar, whereas the intensity of emotional reactions towards sons was statistically significantly higher (p<0.05) in the mothers than in the fathers. Both the overall level of emotional intelligence and the levels for individual scales were statistically significantly higher in the mothers (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). A positive relationship of medium strength was found between the capacity for empathy and the cognitive scale as well as between the ability to control their own emotions and the behavioural scale in the mothers. In the fathers researched in this study, a positive relationship of medium strength between the ability to empathize and the emotional scale was observed. Conclusion. The level of emotional intelligence appears to be a factor which shapes parents’ reactions to children’s speech disfluency.