This study investigated the use of electromyographic feedback in regulating the frequency of part-word repetitions. Two adult stutterers, one female (Subject A) and one male (Subject B) were employed. The frequency of part-word repetitions during baserate, EMG uV raising, and EMG uV lowering conditions was assessed for Subject B. As hypothesized, results indicate that there was a notable decline in the frequency of part-word repetitions during the EMG uV lowering sessions. However, contrary to the second hypothesis, (i.e. that an increase in EMG uV would correspond with an increase in part-word repetitions) there was also a decline in the frequency of part-word repetitions during the EMG raising sessions.

Background: There is an established need to manage teasing and bullying of children who stutter (CWS) through changing the attitudes of their peers. The intervention, the Classroom Communication Resource (CCR), was implemented by teachers in classrooms. The primary objective of the main study was to determine the effectiveness of the CCR through a cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT). The secondary objective of this study was to determine the treatment effect of the Stuttering Resource Outcomes Measure (SROM) within the subscales of Positive Social Distance (PSD), Social Pressure (SP) and Verbal Interaction (VI). The subgroup objective was to determine the primary objective between and across lower and higher school quintile clusters. Method: A cluster RCT was conducted. Participants in grade 7, aged 11 years and older, were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups using school and subgroup (quintile) clusters classifications. Following randomisation, stratification took place using a 1:1 allocation ratio. Participants viewed a video of a child who stuttered at baseline. Teachers administered the CCR (social story, role-play, discussion) in intervention groups only over a 60-90 minute session after they received an hour of training. Peer attitudes were measured at baseline and at 6 months post-intervention using the SROM in intervention and control groups. Results: A total of 10 schools were included whereby they were randomly allocated to control (k=5) and intervention groups (k=5). Within the schools, 454 participants were included with n =223 participants in the intervention and n= 231 in the control group. The study showed no statistically significant difference on the global SROM score (mean difference: -0.11 [95% confidence interval: -1.56, 1.34]; p = 0.88). Similarly, no significant differences were noted on SROM subscales: PSD (1.04 [-1.02,311]; p =0.32), SP (-0.45 [-1.22, 0.26]; p=0.21) and VI (0.05 [-1.01, 1.11]; 0.93), the secondary objective of this study. No significant subgroup effect on the global SROM score (lower vs higher quintile subgroups) [interaction p-value = 0.52] was observed during subgroup analysis. Results were however consistent with the hypothesis and quintile subgroups behaved similarly. Results were found clinically important when considering confidence intervals as well as the magnitude and direction of treatment effect. Conclusion: While the treatment effect showed no statistically significant differences on the global SROM and within the constructs of PSD, SP and VI, a clinically important result was noted when evaluating the meaningfulness of this study as well as its implications. Subgroup analysis showed that the quintiles behaved similarly, showing that the CCR was appropriate for schools within the lower and higher quintiles.

Purpose: To refute the alleged practice of "pseudoscience" by P. Finn, A. K. Bothe, and R. E. Bramlett (2005) and to illustrate their experimental and systematic bias when evaluating the SpeechEasy, an altered auditory feedback device used in the management of stuttering. Method: We challenged the experimental design that led to the seemingly predetermined outcome of pseudoscience rather than science: Limited preselected literature was submitted to a purposely sampled panel of judges (i.e., their own students). Each criterion deemed pseudoscientific was contested with published peer-reviewed data illustrating the importance of good rhetoric, testability, and logical outcomes from decades of scientific research. Conclusions: Stuttering is an involuntary disorder that is highly resistant to therapy. Altered auditory feedback is a derivation of choral speech (nature's most powerful stuttering "inhibitor") that can be synergistically combined with other methods for optimal stuttering inhibition. This approach is logical considering that in stuttering no single treatment is universally helpful. Also, caution is suggested when attempting to differentiate science from pseudoscience in stuttering treatments using the criteria employed by Finn et al. For example, evaluating behavioral therapy outcomes implements a post hoc or untestable system. Speech outcome (i.e., stuttered or fluent speech) determines success or failure of technique use, placing responsibility for failure on those who stutter.

A labeling variable suggested by Wendell Johnson's “diagnosogenic" theory of the onset of stuttering was included in this study of the disfluencies of normal speaking college students in order to explore further the hypothetical relationship between normal disfluency and the onset of stuttering. A total of 60 Ss were randomly assigned to the following groups, each containing 10 Ss: I. Labeling Chastisement plus Contingent “wrong;" II. Labeling Chastisement plus Yoked (non-contingent) "wrong;" III. Labeling Chastisement -No “wrong;" IV. No Labeling Chastisement Contingent "wrong;" V. No Labeling Chastisement -Yoked “wrong;” VI. No Labeling Chastisement -No "wrong” (control). All Ss read aloud for 23 minutes, a three minute Baseline Period in which no experimental manipulations were introduced, followed by a 20 minute Experimental Period. Following the Baseline PerIod, Ss in the three Labeling Chastisement Groups were chastised for "stuttering” and asked to try not to. During the Experimental Period, -Ss in the two Contingent "wrong" Groups were presented “wrong” immediately following a repetition or prolongation. A yoked design was used, which enabled the Ss in the Yoked "wrong” Groups to hear this same "wrong," though non-contingently throughout their reading. The results showed that neither the Labeling Chastisement procedure nor non-contingent (Yoked) “wrong” caused an increase in disfluencies as predicted. The Ss in the Contingent "wrong” Groups decreased disfluencies during the Experimental Period, supporting the results of earlier studies which had reported that response-contingent stimuli reduce the disfluencies of normal speakers, while non-response-contingent stimuli have no effect upon disfluencies. Although this observation is in direct opposition to many onset of stuttering theories which posit that stuttering originates, in part, when the normal disfluencies of children are punished by overly-critical parents, it was noted that several theoretically-important differences exist between normal speaking college students and young children learning to talk. Normal speaking adults have had many years of speaking experience, during which time they have developed large verbal repertoires, enabling them to replace an undesirable response (disfluency) with a more rewarding one (fluency); Young children, on the other hand, have not yet mastered the complex skills required to speak correctly, and are likely to have an extremely narrow range of verbal response alternatives. Consequently, these young children, because of their lack of a correct response, may be more likely than normal adult speakers to respond to the disapproval of their disfluencies by altering their behavior in a maladaptive manner. Some of the normal speakers in this study showed an extreme vulnerability to the experimental manipulations as well as anticipation of disapproval from the E. Anticipation of speech difficulty and vulnerability to environmental influences are two factors which some theorists feel play an important role in the onset of stuttering. However, the Ss in this study who showed these behaviors were able to speak fluently when under pressure from the E to do so. Because of the vast differences between normal speaking adults and young children learning to talk, it was suggested that further experimentation with normal speaking adults engaged in verbal tasks in hopes of gaining insight into the hypothetical relationship between normal disfluency and the onset of stuttering might prove fruitless. Two alternative approaches were suggested. First, detailed observations of the interactions between adults and children in natural settings would undoubtedly prove enlightening. The second suggested approach calls for the laboratory study of adults engaged in a non-verbal task which involves interactions and requires behaviors comparable to those involved in the learning of speech by young children. Nine variables were suggested which would provide an ideal paradigm for this type of study.

Because communication involves both a sender of messages, each person could influence the other’s feelings about speaking and listening. The reactions of each member of this communication network will determine how communication will flow in the future. With an understanding of the feedback system between speakers and listeners, researchers have designed management programs which allow the speaker who stutters to develop a new pattern of speech which does not hinder his communication efforts. Fluency is the primary consideration, and normalcy of speech is second. One such program has been devised by Casteel (1974). In Casteel’s stuttering management program a person moves through four stages of speaking to be fluent. The client learns to sacrifice specific components of speech and these components are systematically reinstated while fluency in reading, monologue, and dialogue are maintained. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine if breathy and imprecisely articulated speech (Stage III) interferes with the speaker’s ability to communicate.

In recent years, operant conditioning techniques have been effectively used to modify a variety of behaviors. For the most part, the modification of stuttering behavior has relied solely on the use of punishment. The shaping of "fluency” through differential reinforcement has been reported as a behavioral approach for the treatment of stuttering; however, the effectiveness of this technique in combination with other "teaching" tools, such as, modeling, instruction, and explanation has not been reported in the literature. The purpose of this study was to construct behavioral definitions of terminology utilized in a stuttering treatment program at Portland State University to produce "self-monitored normal, fluent speech" and to structure the procedures of this program with regard to baseline, conditioning, and extinction in order to provide a base for further research leading to the standardization of procedures for this program. A 35 year old male was chosen as the subject for this study. Specific procedures were applied in three baseline sessions in order to determine the base operant level of interference responses and positive and negative language responses in reading, monologue, and dialogue settings. The emission of interference and language responses were tracked throughout the conditioning and follow-up phases of the program by (I) random sample analysis of audio tapes by the experimenter and (2) a complete analysis of video-tapes by the experimenter and six student trackers. The response goals of the conditioning phase included four progressive stages of motor response ("stretch and flow, "increased breathiness-reduced stretch," "reduced breathiness," and "normal, fluent speech") in addition to a repertoire of positive language responses. The self-monitoring of these responses was conditioned by using differential reinforcement supported by modeling, instruction, and explanation of responses. Throughout the conditioning phase, varying schedules and magnitudes of different reinforcements were utilized to strengthen the subject's monitoring of the above responses in increasing intensities of environmental stimuli. An examiner, other than the experimenter, administered the procedures for a follow-up baseline four weeks after the conditioning phase in order to determine the base operant level of interference responses and positive and negative language responses in reading, monologue, and dialogue settings after the removal of reinforcement in the clinic. The results of the data obtained from the baseline and follow up phases of the program revealed a reduction from 11.7 to 0.86 in the total number of interference responses per minute emitted by the subject and an increase from 29 to 83 percent of positive language responses. These results suggest the effectiveness of the procedures in this program for establishing “self-monitored normal, fluent speech" behavior.

The purpose of this study was to compare the frequency of specific disfluencies in 3 year old and 5 year old normal male children in terms of part-word repetitions, word repetitions, phrase repetitions, interjections, revision-incomplete phrases, disrhythmic phonations and tense pauses. The disfluencies were observed while each child spontaneously interacted with an investigator in a clinical room. Two questions were addressed: 1. Do three-year-old male children exhibit a higher overall frequency of disfluencies than five-yearold male children? 2. Do three-year-old male children exhibit a greater frequency of certain disfluencies than five-year old male children?

No description available.

The present study was designed to answer the question: WIll stutterers perform differently from fluent speakers on a test of tachistoscopic recognition. It was hypothesized that persons exhibiting overt secondary symptoms of stuttering would demonstrate a visual field preference different from an age-matched group of fluent speakers who have no personal or familial history of stuttering.

No description available.