Purpose
To investigate variations in speech motor skills in adults who stutter and those who do not, using the SpeechEasy® altered auditory feedback device.
Methods
11 Oliveira BV, Domingues CEF, Juste FS, Andrade CRF, Moretti-Ferreira
D. Gagueira desenvolvimental persistente familial: perspectivas genéticas. Rev
Soc Bras Fonoaudiol. 2012;17(4):489-94.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1516-80342012000400021
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1516-8034201200...
22 Andrade CRF. Abordagem neurolinguística e motora da gagueira. In:
Ferreira LP, Befi-Lopes DM, Limongi SCO, organizadores. Tratado de
fonoaudiologia. São Paulo: Roca; 2004. p.1001-26.
Results
The spontaneous speech task was the only task to show significant differences in both the intragroup and intergroup comparisons. In this task, the use of SpeechEasy® resulted in significant improvement in speech fluency, as measured by the percentage of stuttered syllables, for the group who stuttered. For the fluent group, the device produced the opposite effect: a significant increase in the frequency of stuttered disfluencies was observed with the device. No significant differences were found in either intragroup or intergroup comparisons relating to the acoustic aspects of the diadochokinesis and target phrase production tasks.
Conclusion
The results indicated that the use of SpeechEasy® improved the fluency of participants who stutter, without appearing to interfere with speech naturalness.
Speech, language and hearing sciences; Stuttering; Voice; Speech acoustics; Speech production measurement