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From: Hans-Georg Bosshardt
Date: 20 Oct 2004
Time: 05:33:47 -0500
Remote Name: 134.147.64.23
The electronic devices you are referring to modify the auditory feedback from your own voice. Some of them mask the auditory feedback by loud noise or they delay the temporal feedback by about 1/5 of a second or they shift your voice characteristic so that it appears to be higher lower pitched. We know enough about the effects of these feedback modifications to say that they can have various effects on speech fluency – one of these effects is of course an increase in speech fluency which is observed in many but not all persons who stutter. For some persons these devices create almost complete fluency under all conditions, for others it is only useful under some very few conditions for example of prepared speech or in quiet environments and it can even increase stuttering in some persons. The costs vary between about 1000 and 5000 USD. Before spend this amount of money I recommend that you collect information. In my view Judy Kuster has compiled a highly informative paper (www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/TherapyWWW/dafjanus.html). This paper informs in detail about research, comments and experiences of people who stutter and of therapists and producers of these devices. You may find additional information at the National Stuttering Association: http://www.nsastutter.org/ , Stuttering Foundation of America: http://www.stutteringhelp.org/ This site provides a list of producers. On the basis of the presently available evidence I fully agree with Judy Kuster's conclusion: “The bottom line(s) as far as I'm concerned is that these products are not a "cure" and should not be marketed as such may be beneficial for some people who stutter may be expensive, but some have a partial money-back guarantee there need to be studies done to determine the long-term effectiveness “ Hans-Georg