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

Abstract

Altered auditory feedback effectively inhibits stuttering immediately after speech has been initiated. However, unlike a true choral signal, which is exogenously initiated and offers the most complete fluency enhancement, AAF requires speech to be initiated by the user and 'fed back' before it can directly inhibit stuttering. It is suggested that AAF can be a viable clinical option for those who stutter and should often be used in combination with therapeutic techniques, particularly those that aid speech initiation. The substantially higher rate of stuttering occurring on initiation supports a hypothesis that overt stuttering events help 'release' and 'inhibit' central stuttering blocks. This perspective is examined in the context of internal models and mirror neurons.

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

“…This interval was chosen based on findings that the likelihood of stuttering increasing with waiting time, when waiting times between 2 and 10 s were examined. In the choral conditions, the voice of the second speaker was presented 0.5 s after the commencement of the visual cue and participants were asked to 'join in', reading along with choral signal immediately after it began (Saltuklaroglu et al, 2008). Fig.…”

“…For each participant, it was ensured that no token in the Neutral conditions began with a word that was identified as having a feared sound in the initial position. Considering that stuttering most frequently occurs in word-initial position on the first word of an utterance (Saltuklaroglu et al, 2008), this was deemed the most important distinction between 'feared' and 'neutral' utterances. However, because the stimuli tokens were constructed before conducting the experiment and tokens for each participant were randomly selected from the respective 'feared' and 'neutral' pools after their feared sounds were identified, it was not possible to ensure a priori that a participant's feared sounds did not appear in any word-initial position (i.e., after the first word) in the neutral tokens.…”

Non-pharmacological treatments for stuttering in children and adults: a systematic review and evaluation of clinical effectiveness, and exploration of barriers to successful outcomes

“…Over time, those who stutter often develop a salient fear of speaking that becomes a deep-rooted obstacle impeding a person's social and vocational opportunities. 1 Treatments for stuttering (which is more often known as stammering in the UK) have been available for children and adults since the 1950s. These treatments have encompassed diverse techniques from the use of carbon dioxide, or pharmacological interventions, to those that are behaviourally based.…”

“…Both of these approaches have been criticised as offering limited effectiveness owing to the propensity for relapse among people who have completed programmes. 1 In addition to these programmes, the use of mechanical delayed auditory feedback (DAF) devices has been reported to have some success in reducing stuttering. However, there are concerns that these positive outcomes may occur predominantly when reading aloud, rather than in normal conversational interactions.…”

Revisiting the acquired neurogenic stuttering in the light of developmental stuttering

“…Several authors have reported that choral (or unison) speech brings in immediate and dramatic reduction of dysfluencies in DS (e.gs., Andrews et al, 1983;Freeman & Armson, 1998;Saltuklaroglu, Kalinowski, Robbins, Crawcour, & Bowers, 2009). Recently, Balasubramanian et al (2010) investigated the choral reading effect in two subjects with ANS.…”