The reliability of simultaneous versus individual data collection during stuttering assessment.

Background: Speech-language pathologists often multitask in order to be efficient with their commonly large caseloads. In stuttering assessment, multitasking often involves collecting multiple measures simultaneously.

Aims: The present study sought to determine reliability when collecting multiple measures simultaneously versus individually.

Reliability of judgments of stuttering-related variables: The effect of language familiarity.

Previous studies demonstrate mixed results and some methodological limitations regarding judges' ability to reliably assess stuttering-related variables in an unfamiliar language. The present study examined intra- and inter-rater reliability for percent syllables stuttered (%SS), stuttering severity (SEV), syllables per minute (SPM), and speech naturalness (NAT) when English-speaking judges viewed speech samples in English and in a language with which they had no or minimal familiarity (Spanish). Over two time periods, 21 judges viewed eight videos of four bilingual persons who stutter.

Stuttering Frequency, Speech Rate, Speech Naturalness, and Speech Effort During the Production of Voluntary Stuttering.

Purpose: Voluntary stuttering techniques involve persons who stutter purposefully interjecting disfluencies into their speech. Little research has been conducted on the impact of these techniques on the speech pattern of persons who stutter. The present study examined whether changes in the frequency of voluntary stuttering accompanied changes in stuttering frequency, articulation rate, speech naturalness, and speech effort.

Intrajudge and Interjudge Reliability of the Stuttering Severity Instrument-Fourth Edition.

Purpose: The Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI) is a tool used to measure the severity of stuttering. Previous versions of the instrument have known limitations (e.g.

Strategies for Teachers to Manage Stuttering in the Classroom: A Call for Research.

Purpose: This clinical focus article highlights the need for future research involving ways to assist children who stutter in the classroom.

Method: The 4 most commonly recommended strategies for teachers were found via searches of electronic databases and personal libraries of the authors. The peer-reviewed evidence for each recommendation was subsequently located and detailed.

Anticipation in stuttering: A theoretical model of the nature of stutter prediction.

Unlabelled: The fact that some people who stutter have the ability to anticipate a stuttering moment is essential for several theories of stuttering and important for maximum effectiveness of many currently used treatment techniques. The "anticipation effect," however, is poorly understood despite much investigation into this phenomenon. In the present paper, we combine (1) behavioral evidence from the stuttering-anticipation literature, (2) speech production models, and (3) models of error detection to propose a theoretical model of anticipation.

Systematic studies of modified vocalization: the effect of speech rate on speech production measures during metronome-paced speech in persons who stutter.

Background: Metronome-paced speech results in the elimination, or substantial reduction, of stuttering moments. The cause of fluency during this fluency-inducing condition is unknown. Several investigations have reported changes in speech pattern characteristics from a control condition to a metronome-paced speech condition, but failure to control speech rate between conditions limits our ability to determine if the changes were necessary for fluency.

The effect of speech rate on stuttering frequency, phonated intervals, speech effort, and speech naturalness during chorus reading.

Purpose: This study examined the effect of speech rate on phonated intervals (PIs), in order to test whether a reduction in the frequency of short PIs is an important part of the fluency-inducing mechanism of chorus reading. The influence of speech rate on stuttering frequency, speaker-judged speech effort, and listener-judged naturalness was also examined. An added purpose was to determine if chorus reading could be further refined so as to provide a perceptual guide for gauging the level of physical effort exerted during speech production.

Systematic studies of modified vocalization: speech production changes during a variation of metronomic speech in persons who do and do not stutter.

Unlabelled: The most common way to induce fluency using rhythm requires persons who stutter to speak one syllable or one word to each beat of a metronome, but stuttering can also be eliminated when the stimulus is of a particular duration (e.g., 1 second [s]).

Systematic studies of modified vocalization: effects of speech rate and instatement style during metronome stimulation.

Purpose: This study introduces a series of systematic investigations intended to clarify the parameters of the fluency-inducing conditions (FICs) in stuttering.

Method: Participants included 11 adults, aged 20-63 years, with typical speech-production skills. A repeated measures design was used to examine the relationships between several speech production variables (vowel duration, voice onset time, fundamental frequency, intraoral pressure, pressure rise time, transglottal airflow, and phonated intervals) and speech rate and instatement style during metronome-entrained rhythmic speech.

Measurement of phonated intervals during four fluency-inducing conditions.

Purpose: Previous investigations of persons who stutter have demonstrated changes in vocalization variables during fluency-inducing conditions (FICs). A series of studies has also shown that a reduction in short intervals of phonation, those from 30 to 200 ms, is associated with decreased stuttering. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to test the hypothesis that the distribution of phonated intervals (PIs) should change during 4 of the most well-known FICs.

Stuttering treatment research 1970-2005: II. Systematic review incorporating trial quality assessment of pharmacological approaches.

Purpose: To complete a systematic review, incorporating trial quality assessment, of published research about pharmacological treatments for stuttering. Goals included the identification of treatment recommendations and research needs based on the available high-quality evidence.

Method: Multiple readers reviewed 31 articles published between 1970 and 2005, using a written data extraction instrument developed as a synthesis of existing standards and recommendations.

Stuttering treatment research 1970-2005: I. Systematic review incorporating trial quality assessment of behavioral, cognitive, and related approaches.

Purpose: To complete a systematic review, with trial quality assessment, of published research about behavioral, cognitive, and related treatments for developmental stuttering. Goals included the identification of treatment recommendations and research needs based on the available high-quality evidence about stuttering treatment for preschoolers, school-age children, adolescents, and adults.

Method: Multiple readers reviewed 162 articles published between 1970 and 2005, using a written data extraction instrument developed as a synthesis of existing standards and recommendations.

The Stuttering Treatment Research Evaluation and Assessment Tool (STREAT): evaluating treatment research as part of evidence-based practice.

Purpose: This article presents, and explains the issues behind, the Stuttering Treatment Research Evaluation and Assessment Tool (STREAT), an instrument created to assist clinicians, researchers, students, and other readers in the process of critically appraising reports of stuttering treatment research.

Method: The STREAT was developed by combining and reorganizing previously published recommendations about the design and conduct of stuttering treatment research.

Conclusions: If evidence-based practice is to be widely adopted as the basis for stuttering assessment and treatment, procedures must be developed and distributed that will allow students, clinicians, and other readers without specialized knowledge of research design to critically appraise treatment research reports.

Low-level static lip force control does not alter vibrotactile detection thresholds in the human orofacial system.

Mechanosensation associated with precise orofacial force regulation may contribute considerably to processes associated with perception, proprioception and sensorimotor control due to the direct coupling between orofacial skin and the underlying musculature. Recent investigations have demonstrated that dynamic, low-level lip force control is capable of modulating vibrotactile detection thresholds of the lips in a frequency-dependent manner. What is not known is whether the mode of motor control (static versus dynamic) may represent an important control variable in the expression of these perceptual threshold changes.