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From: Judy
Date: 07 Oct 2009
Time: 22:06:54 -0500
Remote Name: 74.104.112.9
Cassie, This is THE question for any kind of therapy, isn't it? I'm so glad you are sensitive to this issue. Since I only just began using Audacity this summer, the answer is no. I do not have any long term data to share. But I can't leave it at that now, can I! This is my big chance to raise issues for your consideration. :)I once attended a workshop to learn about a particular approach to stuttering therapy. When the workshop was finished, I was outraged. I was disappointed with the presenter and with the method. But, then I had to ask myself, 'How is what I do any more valid?' This question sent me to the ASHA Desk References: Position Statements, Technical Reports, Guidelines, Preferred Practice Patterns. I searched ASHA journals for justification of fluency shaping and stuttering modification. And I discovered ASHA's transition from a profession based on expert advice to one based on evidence. And I re-discovered the controversies that accompany stuttering therapy. And for a while, I was quite disappointed in my own profession. Now, I am just humbled. Stuttering is a chronic condition and our field approaches the disorder systematically and with professionalism and I think that's a good thing. But we do not have the answers, IMHO. And we try our best to behave ethically as we take what we know from research and experience and work creatively to accommodate the individual needs of our clients. So, indeed, we need to ask the question - 'What are the long term effects of using Audacity?' Alas, I am not finished....What effect(s) are we looking for? Currently, the profession looks at treatment results with a wide angle lens. We are improving communication skills. (I haven't read Nan Ratner's paper yet.)While I agree with this whole heartedly, I must remember that my clients come to me for greater fluency and sense of empowerment over their speech. It is not the stutter, per se, that is the problem in speech therapy, IMHO. It is the loss of control - a loss of control that escalates into anxiety/escape/avoidance/self-hatred over the course of a sentence, a monologue, a conversation, an oral report, a year, a lifetime - that is what we can effect while we wait for a medical cure to the stuttering moment. It is my hope that Audacity, along side other therapeutic tools, might help a client discover some sense of control over speech change. With questions like that, you will make a fine SLP!! Fini Judy :)