A Program for the Initial Stages of Fluency Therapy

Abstract

An orientation program which was cognitive in nature and based on the philosophy of, responsibility for, and control of one’s own speech behavior was administered to six stutterers. The program consisted of 11 discrete steps, culminating in a demonstration of fluent speech. The first seven steps are philosophically based and orient the subjects to talk positively in terms of fluency. The last four steps are performance centered. A pre- and postorientation questionnaire was administered to assess attitude change during the program. Results indicate significant reduction in stuttering for all six subjects. In addition, several variations of the program were examined, including altering its length and sequencing the steps within it.

An analysis of the relationship between the degree of maintained fluency improvement of former Portland State University stuttering clients and the overall language themes they used

“…The present research adds to that of others (Johnson, 1955;Williams, 1957;Shames, Egolf and Rhodes, 1969;Egolf, Shames and Blind, 1971;Prichard, 1971;Culatta and Rubin, 1973;and Casteel, 1976) who have found that there seems to be a relationship between fluency and language or thematics. While other research has indicated a relationship between the establishment of fluency and the use of desirable language during an intervention program, this research suggests that desirable language may also be related to overall clinical gain and fluency improvement that is maintained over an extended period of time.…”

“…score and/or greater overall fluency gain from baseline to follow-up. These data add some new information to the findings of numerous researchers (Shames, Egolf and Rhodes, 1969;Egolf, Shames and Blind, 1971;Prichard, 1971;and Culatta and Rubin, 1973) who suggest that the use of overall desirable language themes seems to play a major role in the establishment of fluency. Although this study seems to support a relationship between desirable language themes and maintained fluency improvements the degree of relationship is difficult to state conclu-sively at this point due to several uncontrolled variables which will be discussed later.…”

“…Other questions were drawn from sources such as Williams (1957), Kent (1961) and Culatta and Rubin (1973), with some minor revisions. Reliability and validity of this instrument were not determined.…”

“…relapse is 'so high. Thematic modification of the stuttering client's undesirable language (to a more desirable Ianguage) has been reported to promote the establishment of fluency in short term studies (Shames, Egolf and Rhodes, 1969;Egolf, Shames and Blind, 1971;and Culatta and Rubin, 1973). However, research has been meager so far.…”

“…The relationship between the stutterer's language responses to behavioral responsibility and fluency establishment has been speculated by several authors (Shames, Egolf and Rhodes, 1969;Sander, 1970;Egolf, Shames and Blind, 1971;Prichard, 1971;Culatta and Rubin, 1973;and Casteel, 1976 If language themes are somehow related to behavioral responsibility and fluency, as the above authors suggest, language themes should be considered when constructing a program to promote responsibility and to instate fluency. Via the language themes of responses, the individual's beliefs and attitudes become observable events that can be dealt with as target behaviors subject to modification.…”