ABSTRACT
Introduction
Auditory feedback changes, in general, provide the increase of the speech fluency of people who stutter, but few studies have investigated the effects on speech of people who clutter. Purpose: To compare the speech rate and frequency of speech disruption in spontaneous speech and reading of adults with and without cluttering, with two different auditory feedbacks.
Methods
Participants were 16 adults, divided into two groups: Research Group (G1) composed by eight cluttering adults; Control Group (G2), composed by 8 fluent adults, paired by age and gender to participants of G1. The participants of G1 should present at least 10% of common disfluencies, and speech rate higher than the standards expected for age and gender. The procedures used were audiology assessment and fluency evaluation (spontaneous speech and reading) in two listening conditions, with Non-Altered Auditory Feedback (NAF) and after with Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF).
Results
DAF caused reduction of flow of syllables per minute and frequency of common disfluencies in G1 during spontaneous speech task. In reading, there was a decrease in speech disruption and flow of syllables per minute, in G2, influenced by the effect of DAF.
Conclusion
The delayed auditory feedback effect in adults who clutter was positive in spontaneous speech due the reduction of speech rate and common disfluencies that are the main manifestations of this disorder.
Speech, language and hearing sciences; Speech; Speech disorders; Evaluation; Feedback