The Use of Altered Speech Feedback in Stuttering Management

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Re: A humble request :-) & clarification

From: Greg
Date: 10/10/02
Time: 8:34:34 AM
Remote Name: 68.105.255.171

Comments

Hi Gunars,

An aspect about ASF is that everyone may respond to speech feedback a little differently. While basically all PWS derive some benefit from speech feedback, some seem to use it better (or more effectively) than others. Thus, the best—albeit the most frustrating—advice, is to suggest that you take one out for at test drive. Only then will you really know just how much benefit you can get from ASF. You can get the same fluency enhancing effects from a computer program that’s floating around the internet, or from your digital sound card (by changing the “environmental sound settings”). Another option would be to go through the process of “buying” a prosthetic, and then potentially “returning” it.

Since we’ve learned that DAF works equally effective at short delays, AAF should not have any distorting effects on your speech production.

Where DAF excels is at simply reducing the frequency of stuttered events. If you handle your remaining stuttered events with control (i.e., no excessive primary / secondary behaviors), then I expect that ASF would be of benefit. However, if one tends to produce “silent blocks” or have excessive primary / secondary stuttering behaviors, then the full effects of ASF may be diminished.

The two prosthetic manufacturers that I would recommend are either Casa Futura or Janus Development. The Casa Futura device uses an older (analog) technology, is bulkier, and only offers DAF—but is much more affordably priced. The Janus device is digital (and thus has firmware that can be upgraded), fits discretely in your ear canal, and offers both DAF and FAF—but it’s quite expensive.

If you have any more questions, email me personally—I’ll try and help out where I can.

Greg Snyder ISAD@elocutionary.com


Last changed: September 12, 2005