ABSTRACT
This letter addresses some issues in Lohman's (2008) article on students' perceptions of face-to-face pseudostuttering experiences. Concerns include the valuation of the pseudostuttering experiences on the telephone as compared to face-to-face experiences in training graduate students in speech-language pathology.
Subject(s)
Patient Simulation , Speech-Language Pathology/education , Students, Health Occupations/psychology , Stuttering/psychology , Teaching/standards , Telephone , Attitude , Education, Graduate/methods , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Self Concept , Stress, Psychological/etiology , Stress, Psychological/psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This study explored the effect of reading with reversed speech on the frequency of stuttering. Eight adults who stutter served as participants and read four 300-syllable passages while listening to three types of speech stimuli: normal speech (choral reading), reversed speech at normal speed, reversed speech at half speed, and a control condition of no auditory feedback. A repeated-measures analysis of variance showed a significant decrease in stuttering frequency in the choral reading condition but not in reversed speech at normal and half speed. However, the reversed speech at half-speed condition showed a large effect size (omega2 = 0.32). Data suggest that a forward moving speech feedback is not essential to decrease the frequency of stuttering in adults who stutter.
Subject(s)
Feedback , Reading , Speech Perception , Speech Therapy/methods , Stuttering/therapy , Acoustic Stimulation , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Stuttering/psychology , Tape RecordingABSTRACT
This study investigated use of choral reading with filtered components of speech and whispered speech on the frequency of stuttering. Three passages read by a normal adult male were lowpass filtered with kneepoint frequencies at 100 Hz (approximate glottal source), 500 Hz (source and first formant), and 1 kHz (source and the first two formants). Along with a whispered passage, a normal passage, and a control condition, these stimuli were used in a repeated-measures design with 12 adult stutterers as they read passages while listening to one of the stimuli. Frequencies of stuttering in each condition were analyzed. The choral speech, the 500-Hz, the 1-kHz, and the whispered speech conditions all decreased the frequency of stuttering while the 100-Hz stimuli did not. It is suggested that articulatory events, chiefly the encoded speech output from the vocal tract, create effective cues and may induce fluent speech in people who stutter.
Subject(s)
Feedback , Reading , Speech Perception , Speech Therapy/methods , Stuttering/therapy , Acoustic Stimulation , Adult , Cues , Female , Humans , Imitative Behavior , Male , Middle Aged , Speech Acoustics , VoiceABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This survey investigated the effect of 'pseudostuttering' experiences on self-perceptions of 29 female, graduate students enrolled in a graduate seminar in stuttering while in a programme of study to become professional speech language pathologists. METHOD: Perceptions of self prior to, and immediately after, participation in five scripted telephone calls that contained pseudostuttering were measured via a 25-item semantic differential scale. RESULTS: Participants perceived themselves as significantly more (p < 0.002) withdrawn, tense, avoiding, afraid, introverted, nervous, self-conscious, anxious, quiet, inflexible, fearful, shy, careless, hesitant, uncooperative, dull, passive, unpleasant, insecure, unfriendly, guarded, and reticent after their pseudostuttering telephone call experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggests that the pseudostuttering experiences have an impact on self-perceptions and that the experience of 'adopting the disability of a person who stutters' may provide insight as to the social and emotional impact of communicative failure. It is suggested that pseudostuttering exercises may be a valuable teaching tool for the graduate students, especially for those who do not stutter.
