Randomized clinical trial: the use of SpeechEasy® in stuttering treatment.

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefit of devices delivering altered auditory feedback (AAF) as a therapeutic alternative for those who stutter.

Aims: The effectiveness of a device delivering AAF (SpeechEasy®) was compared with behavioural techniques in the treatment of stuttering in a randomized clinical trial.

Methods & Procedures: Two groups of adults who stutter participated: group 1 consisted of 10 men and one woman aged 21-42 years (mean = 30.

EFFECT OF DELAYED AUDITORY FEEDBACK, SPEECH RATE, AND SEX ON SPEECH PRODUCTION.

Perturbations in Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) and speech rate were examined as sources of disruptions in speech between men and women. Fluent adult men (n = 16) and women (n = 16) spoke at a normal and an imposed fast rate of speech with 0, 25, 50, 100, and 200 msec. DAF.

Stuttering inhibition via altered auditory feedback during scripted telephone conversations.

Background: Overt stuttering is inhibited by approximately 80% when people who stutter read aloud as they hear an altered form of their speech feedback to them. However, levels of stuttering inhibition vary from 60% to 100% depending on speaking situation and signal presentation. For example, binaural presentations of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) and frequency-altered feedback (FAF) have been shown to reduce stuttering by approximately 57% during scripted telephone conversations.

Autonomic and emotional responses of graduate student clinicians in speech-language pathology to stuttered speech.

Background: Fluent speakers and people who stutter manifest alterations in autonomic and emotional responses as they view stuttered relative to fluent speech samples. These reactions are indicative of an aroused autonomic state and are hypothesized to be triggered by the abrupt breakdown in fluency exemplified in stuttered speech. Furthermore, these reactions are assumed to be the basis for the stereotypes held by different communicative partners towards people who stutter.

Culture and listeners' gaze responses to stuttering.

Background: It is frequently observed that listeners demonstrate gaze aversion to stuttering. This response may have profound social/communicative implications for both fluent and stuttering individuals. However, there is a lack of empirical examination of listeners' eye gaze responses to stuttering, and it is unclear whether cultural background plays a role in regulating listeners' eye gaze response to stuttering.

Autonomic arousal in adults who stutter prior to various reading tasks intended to elicit changes in stuttering frequency.

This study examined relationships between anticipatory autonomic arousal and stuttering in four reading tasks. 13 adult persons who stutter (PWS) reported their 'feared' (expected to elicit more stuttering) sounds. They read phrases initiated by feared (F) and neutral (N) phonemes.

Past speech therapy experiences of individuals exploring a new stuttering treatment.

Perceptions of benefits of speech therapy, success of therapy across clinical settings, reasons for returning to therapy, client-clinician relationships, and clinicians' competency were assessed in 57 participants (47 men, 10 women; M age = 34 yr.) trying a new therapy. A majority of respondents had cumulatively five or more years in therapy and at least two stuttering therapies.

Stuttering inhibition via visual feedback at normal and fast speech rates.

Background: Immediate and drastic reductions in stuttering are found when speech is produced in conjunction with a variety of second signals (for example, auditory choral speech and its permutations, and delayed auditory feedback). Initially, researchers suggested a decreased speech rate as a plausible explanation for the reduction in stuttering as people who stutter produced speech under second signals. However, this explanation was refuted by research findings that demonstrated reductions in stuttering at both normal and fast speech rates under second signals.

Effect of continuous speech and non-speech signals on stuttering frequency in adults who stutter.

The inhibitory effects of continuously presented audio signals (/a/, /s/, 1,000 Hz pure-tone) on stuttering were examined. Eleven adults who stutter participated. Participants read four 300-syllable passages (i.

The effect of static and dynamic visual gestures on stuttering inhibition.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of steady-state and dynamic visual gestures of vowels in stuttering inhibition. Eight adults who stuttered recited sentences from memory while watching video presentations of the following visual speech gestures: (a) a steady-state /u/, (b) dynamic production of /a-i-u/, (c) steady-state /u/ with an accompanying audible 1 kHz pure tone, and (d) dynamic production of /a-i-u/ with an accompanying audible 1 kHz pure tone. A 1 kHz pure tone and a no-external signal condition served as control conditions.

The inhibition of stuttering via the perceptions and production of syllable repetitions.

In contrast to most therapeutic protocols for stuttering that induce fluency while producing speech targets, we investigated the possibility of inducing "carry-over" fluency prior to normal speech production. Ten adults who stutter read 7-12 syllable phrases after actively producing (via shadowing) or passively listening to: (a) repeating syllables, matched to the initial syllable of the target utterance; (b) repeating syllables, not matched to the initial syllable of the target; (c) nonrepeating syllables; and (d) fricative /noise-like acoustic signals. Relative to baseline, all active syllabic conditions produced approximately 70% inhibition (reduction) of stuttering in the ensuing target utterances, which is attributed to carry-over from fluent shadowing.

Refutation of a therapeutic alternative? A reply to Pollard, Ellis, Finan, and Ramig (2009).

Purpose: To challenge the findings of Pollard, Ellis, Finan, and Ramig (2009), who examined 11 participants using the SpeechEasy, an in-the-ear device that employs altered auditory feedback to reduce stuttering, in a 6-month "clinical trial." Pollard et al. failed to demonstrate a significant treatment effect on stuttering frequency, yet found positive subjective self-report data across four months of use.

Gaze aversion to stuttered speech: a pilot study investigating differential visual attention to stuttered and fluent speech.

Background: People who stutter are often acutely aware that their speech disruptions, halted communication, and aberrant struggle behaviours evoke reactions in communication partners. Considering that eye gaze behaviours have emotional, cognitive, and pragmatic overtones for communicative interactions and that previous studies have indicated increased physiological arousal in listeners in response to stuttering, it was hypothesized that stuttered speech incurs increased gaze aversion relative to fluent speech. The possible importance in uncovering these visible reactions to stuttering is that they may contribute to the social penalty associated with stuttering.

Stuttered and fluent speakers' heart rate and skin conductance in response to fluent and stuttered speech.

Background: Previous studies have found simultaneous increases in skin conductance response and decreases in heart rate when normally fluent speakers watched and listened to stuttered speech compared with fluent speech, suggesting that stuttering induces arousal and emotional unpleasantness in listeners. However, physiological responses of persons who stutter observing stuttering and fluent speech has not been measured. Research suggests that the mechanism responsible for listeners' reactions is the mirror neuron system.

Comparisons of stuttering frequency during and after speech initiation in unaltered feedback, altered auditory feedback and choral speech conditions.

Background: Stuttering is prone to strike during speech initiation more so than at any other point in an utterance. The use of auditory feedback (AAF) has been found to produce robust decreases in the stuttering frequency by creating an electronic rendition of choral speech (i.e.

Jobs, sex, love and lifestyle: when nonstutterers assume the roles of stutterers.

Purpose: This study assessed the impact of stuttering via a questionnaire in which fluent individuals were asked to assume the mindset of persons who stutter (PWS) in various life aspects, including vocation, romance, daily activities, friends/social life, family and general lifestyle. The perceived impact of stuttering through the mind's eyes of nonstutterers is supposed to reflect respondents' abilities to impart 'theory of mind' in addressing social penalties related to stuttering.

Method: Ninety-one university students answered a questionnaire containing 56 statements on a 7-point Likert scale.

The effect of frequency altered feedback on stuttering duration and type.

Purpose: The effect of frequency altered feedback (FAF) on stuttering type (i.e., prolongation, repetition, or silent block) and stuttering duration (i.

Emotional and physiological responses of fluent listeners while watching the speech of adults who stutter.

Background: People who stutter produce speech that is characterized by intermittent, involuntary part-word repetitions and prolongations. In addition to these signature acoustic manifestations, those who stutter often display repetitive and fixated behaviours outside the speech producing mechanism (e.g.

On the importance of scientific rhetoric in stuttering: a reply to Finn, Bothe, and Bramlett (2005).

Purpose: To refute the alleged practice of "pseudoscience" by P. Finn, A. K.

The inhibition of stuttering via the presentation of natural speech and sinusoidal speech analogs.

Sensory signals containing speech or gestural (articulatory) information (e.g., choral speech) have repeatedly been found to be highly effective inhibitors of stuttering.

Investigations of the impact of altered auditory feedback in-the-ear devices on the speech of people who stutter: one-year follow-up.

Purpose: This study examined objective and subjective measures of the effect of a self-contained ear-level device delivering altered auditory feedback (AAF) for those who stutter 12 months following initial fitting with and without the device.

Method: Nine individuals with developmental stuttering participated. In Experiment 1, the proportion of stuttering was examined during reading and monologue.

Psychophysiological responses of adults who do not stutter while listening to stuttering.

The present study examined the psychophysiological responses of fluent listeners to stuttered speech. Specifically, skin conductance and heart rate changes were measured from adults who do not stutter while watching one-minute video speech samples of persons stutter read aloud. Fifteen adult participants observed three stuttered and three fluent speech samples, presented in random order with a two-minute interstimulus intervals.

The need for self-report data in the assessment of stuttering therapy efficacy: repetitions and prolongations of speech. The stuttering syndrome.

Background: Bloodstein reviewed hundreds of studies that investigated the efficacy of therapeutic protocols for ameliorating the stuttering syndrome. Surprisingly, almost all were effective in significantly reducing overtly perceptible behaviours such as repetitions and prolongations of speech sounds. These results seem highly improbable considering that many of the treatment methods were diametrically opposed in their principles and implementation procedures (e.

How effective is therapy for childhood stuttering? Dissecting and reinterpreting the evidence in light of spontaneous recovery rates.

Background: Similar positive results (e.g. immediate decreases in stuttering frequency and a 60-80% recovery rate from stuttering) have been reported for numerous therapeutic protocols for treating childhood stuttering, many of which have been diametrically opposite in their orientations and implementations.

Is it possible for speech therapy to improve upon natural recovery rates in children who stutter?

Background: Speech and language therapists treating children who stutter appear to be assigned a difficult task. Natural spontaneous remission accounts for approximately 60-80% of all children recovering from stuttering. Despite our best efforts, no protocol has ever shown its effectiveness separate from natural recovery rates (i.