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This study examined a sentence-initial one-second sound prolongation as a possible fluency-inducing condition in people who stutter. The effects of this prolongation technique on the single sentence utterances of five people who stutter (PWS) and five age- and gender-matched controls were investigated. Variables tested included stuttering percentages, speaking rate, duration of phonated intervals, and correlation between upper lip and lower lip/jaw. Results showed a non-significant trend for less stuttering to occur when participants used the prolongation technique. Significant findings included longer durations of phonated intervals and more negatively correlated upper- and lower-lip movements during the prolongation condition. Rate of speech was not affected. These findings suggest that the prolongation technique caused measurable changes in speech motor control, possibly leading to greater fluency for PWS.

A lot of time in school consists of verbal communication. That may result in stress and loneliness for students who stutter. Many schools neither have staff with knowledge about stuttering nor about how to meet the needs of these students. Without this knowledge teachers do not know how to create a good learning environment in relation to stuttering. We need to find out about the hinders that both students and teachers might encounter, as well as the possibilities, in order to find out about what a suitable pedagogy might look like when it comes to stuttering.The aim of the study is to reach knowledge about how schools proactively can offer a learning environment that makes it easier for students who stutter, both educationally and socially.To get a picture of the problem area the following questions were asked:1) What experiences do students and teachers have about possibilities and hinders that students who stutter meet in school?2) What do students and teachers think a suitable learning environment in relation to stuttering would look like?The theories used in the study consists of relational perspectives between the individual and the surrounding environment. Focus is set on relations with other people, but also on relations between the individual and the surrounding environment itself. Interpersonal treatment, collaboration and communication are included in the study, as well as theories about stuttering.The study is a mixed methods study and was carried out using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Interviews and questionnaires were used and data were collected from two different groups; students and teachers.The data of the experiences and thoughts of the students and teachers show both hinders and possibilities. One student might prefer one way which another student may reject. It becomes clear that there is no solution that fits all. The same goes forteachers. In some areas they agree, in others not. Communication and collaboration between students and teachers are needed in order to create a good pedagogy in relation to stuttering. The needs and thoughts of the student should show the path. To be able to offer a suitable pedagogy, the emphasis need to be set on personal relations and adjustments in the surrounding environment, but also on knowledge about stuttering.Through this study schools might find support in how to offer suitable possibilities for students who stutter. The study focuses on what might be important for teachers to think about when trying to meet the needs of these students. It also focuses on different adjustments that might be suitable. In relation to stuttering, the Swedish Education Act is discussed. Furthermore the study focuses on the risks of loneliness and bullying of students who stutter and how schools could work proactively against that.Implications within Special Education: Educators need to gain more knowledge about stuttering. They also need knowledge about the different strategies that students might use to avoid speaking in front of others. Teachers in special education could play a vital role when it comes to offering more possibilities for students who stutter. First the teachers in special education need to gain knowledge about stuttering and one solution is that they get that possibility during their education. If universities and teacher training colleges offer education about stuttering, the teachers in special education could in turn train the teachers in schools. Collaboration between teachers in special education and speech and language therapists is another possible way of improving teachers´ knowledge about stuttering.

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Clinicians are increasingly incorporating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based approaches into fluency treatment for children and adolescents who stutter. However, minimal research examines the efficacy of such programs. The present study assesses the efficacy of a CBT-based, intensive, five-day summer camp that promotes self-acceptance and aims to improve the quality of life of adolescents who stutter. Specifically, this study examines whether the camp is effective in reducing state and trait anxiety, decreasing the negative impact of stuttering on daily life, and increasing fluency. A single-subject design on a 14-year old, male adolescent who stutters, LM, and personal interview data with LM’s mother, MM, are utilized. Post-treatment, LM’s scores reflect improvements in self-efficacy surrounding communication situations, as measured by the Self-Efficacy for Adolescents Scale (SEA-Scale), and improvements in overall speaking-related quality of life, as measured by the Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering – Teen (OASES-T). These improvements were maintained at one and three months follow-up. Nonetheless, a large degree of variation in percent syllables stuttered (%SS) and LM’s consistently low rates of state and trait anxiety, as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), suggest that additional study is warranted before conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of the summer camp program on reducing stuttering severity and anxiety. / Communication Sciences

Developmental stuttering is a physiological disorder of speech motor control. Unlike acquired conditions, developmental stuttering is responsive to fluency-inducing conditions involving the manipulation or elimination of auditory feedback. It was hypothesized that stutterers experience interference effects from competing sensory feedback during the working memory interval in which contextual information is held on-line in order to prepare subsequent motor responses. Behavior and EEG activity of stutterers and non stutterers were compared during working memory tasks. Participants were 22 male, right-handed stutterers, mean age 28.2 years, age matched with 22 male, right-handed nonstutterers. Behavioral measures included a written verbal fluency task, an auditory delayed match-to-sample key press task, and a written digit span task. As hypothesized, there were no group differences in verbal fluency. Also as hypothesized, stutterers had higher error scores (more false positives) on the auditory delayed match-to-sample key press task. This suggests increased sensitivity to auditory stimuli and difficulty inhibiting response to stimulation. Groups did not differ in digit span, but there was a trend toward significance (p=.07). If stutterers do experience overlapping or excessive sensory stimulation during the working memory phase of speech motor plan assembly, the EEG of stutterers should evidence differences consistent with excessive or inefficient processing of "extra" sensory stimuli. Monopolar recordings were collected from 19 sites in accordance with the international 10-20 system of electrode placement. EEG was recorded during 60 seconds of resting-eyes-closed and resting-eyes-open~ 60 seconds during a silent backwards-subtraction math task; 120 seconds during an auditory delayed match-to-sample key press task. As hypothesized, stutterers exhibited more theta activity than nonstutterers in frontal regions in all conditions, both in the low theta subband (3-5 Hz) and the high theta subband (5.5-7.5 Hz). Also as hypothesized, stutterers produced more alpha activity in the low alpha subband (8-10 Hz) in frontal regions in all conditions. There were no group differences in the high alpha subband (10.5-13 Hz). There were no hemispheric differences in frontal regions. Increased cortical activity and increased sensitivity to stimuli support the proposed hypothesis that stutterers experience excess sensory stimulation while attempting motor plan assembly, suggestive of stuttering as a disorder of attention. / Ph. D.

The aim of the study was to determine how Gestalt play therapy may be used in the therapeutic treatment of children in middle childhood who stutter. Stuttering is a problem that touches the lives of many people and is associated with great interpersonal distress. Stuttering is especially difficult for children in middle childhood, a time dominated by the school experience. Gestalt play therapy creates a child-friendly environment, in which the child can share information in a safe manner through the use of play therapeutic techniques. Literature was reviewed according to relevant topics, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three respondents, the data obtained was qualitatively analysed and research findings were discussed. The researcher concludes that Gestalt play therapy can be used to good effect with children who stutter, as it allows them to work through their emotions, and therefore, encourages them to communicate more freely within the therapeutic environment. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T18:11:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thais Inocencio Pires.pdf: 872835 bytes, checksum: b1e5cabfbe7f4c096f5191f7cd737d08 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-10 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Introduction: Speech fluency can be viewed as a complex event involving the organic, psychic and social dimensions. From this perspective, complaints about problems of speech fluency brought to the clinic by the family, call for the development of a therapeutic process that involves the entire family unit. Objective: To study, through the speech of parents, the effects and effectiveness of a therapeutic process for speech fluency problems based on a historical-dialectical approach. Method: qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with three families that have therapeutic work with the researcher. The interview began with the phrase: Tell me about your child's therapeutic process. The interviewer intervened to ensure that respondents talked about the vision they had about their children, his speech and the changes they observed. The transcribed interviews were categorized according to Bardin's Content Analysis (2009) in four categories: Therapeutic Approach; Experiences and Affections; Causes and Vision that Parents have about the Child, the Language and his Stuttering, the last one structured in three sub - categories: Feelings and Thoughts on Stuttering and Language; Social Situations and Characteristics of Communication. Results / Discussion: The therapeutic effects observed from the analysis of the categories were: in Therapeutic Approach parents reported that, unlike other approaches, whit the dialectical historical approach they felt part of the therapeutic process. In Experiences and Affections reports that speech moments before felt as harassed and helpless, came to be shared and seized as part of the process of speech production and that they understood that their feelings have an effect on the speech of the child. In Vision that Parents have about the Child, the Language and his Stuttering was reports about how the speech of their children was; about the changes observed; about the stigma they and their children carried and about their understanding that the social contexts intensified stuttering. Conclusion: These effects indicate that the therapeutic process supported on the historical dialectical approach was effective for the participants in this study. It also indicates that effectiveness is not only measured by the decrease in stuttering and disfluency of children, but mainly by change of attitude of parents toward this form of speech, which enabled such a decrease. This result points to the need and importance of further studies about this type of approach / Introdução: A fluência de fala pode ser encarada como um acontecimento complexo por envolver as dimensões orgânica, psíquica e social. Nessa perspectiva, as queixas sobre os problemas de fluência trazidas à clínica fonoaudiológica pela família, convocam ao desenvolvimento de um processo terapêutico que envolva todo o núcleo familiar. Objetivo: Estudar, por intermédio do discurso de pais, os efeitos e a efetividade de um processo terapêutico para problemas de fluência de fala baseados em uma abordagem dialético-histórica. Método: Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa para a qual foram feitas entrevistas semi-estruturadas a três famílias em atendimento terapêutico com a pesquisadora. A entrevista iniciou-se com a frase: Fale-me sobre o processo terapêutico de seu filho. O entrevistador interferiu de modo a garantir que os entrevistados falassem sobre a visão que tinham e têm de seus filhos e de sua fala, além das mudanças que observaram. As entrevistas transcritas, foram categorizadas de acordo com a Análise de Conteúdo de Bardin (2009) em 4 categorias: Abordagem Terapêutica; Vivências e Afetos; Causas e Visão que os Pais têm do Filho, da Linguagem e da Gagueira, está estruturada em 3 subcategorias: Sentimentos/Pensamentos sobre a Gagueira/Linguagem; Situações Sociais e Características da Comunicação. Resultados/Discussão: Os efeitos terapêuticos observados a partir da análise das categorias foram: em Abordagem Terapêutica relatos dos pais que, diferentemente de outras abordagens, na abordagem dialético-histórica sentiram-se parte integrante do processo terapêutico. Na categoria Vivências e Afetos, relatos de que momentos de fala antes sentidos como aflitivos e exaustivos, passaram a ser compartilhados e apreendidos como parte integrante do processo de produção de fala e de que compreenderam de que os seus sentimentos tem efeitos sobre a fala das crianças. Na categoria Causas, relatos que relacionaram o surgimento da gagueira a algum evento importante de suas vidas. Na categoria Visão que os Pais têm do Filho, da Linguagem e da Gagueira, relatos sobre como era a fala de seus filhos; sobre as mudanças observadas nessa fala; sobre o estigma que eles e seus filhos carregavam e sobre sua compreensão de que os contextos sociais intensificavam a gagueira. Conclusão: Esses efeitos indicam que o processo terapêutico apoiado na vertente dialético histórica foi efetivo para os participantes desta pesquisa. Indica também que essa efetividade não se avalia apenas pela diminuição da gagueira e da disfluência das crianças, mas, principalmente, pela mudança da atitude dos pais em relação a esta forma de fala, que permitiu tal diminuição. Tal resultado aponta para a necessidade e importância de realizar outros estudos a respeito desse tipo de abordagem