title: The modification of speech naturalness during rhythmic stimulation treatment of stuttering.
abstract: This study investigated the modification of speech naturalness during stuttering treatment. It systematically replicated an earlier study (Ingham & Onslow, 1985) that demonstrated that unnatural-sounding stutter-free speech could be shaped into more natural-sounding stutter-free speech by using regular feedback of speech-naturalness ratings during speaking tasks. In the present study, the some procedure was used with three persons who stutter-2 adolescent girls and 1 adult man-during rhythmic stimulation conditions. The two adolescent participants spoke only English, but Spanish was the first and English the second language (ESL) of the adult participant. For the 2 adolescents, it was demonstrated that their unnatural-sounding rhythmic speech could be shaped to levels found among normally fluent speakers without losing the fluency-inducing benefits of rhythmic speech. The findings indicate that speech-naturalness feedback may be a powerful procedure for overcoming a problematic aspect of rhythmic speech treatments of stuttering. However, it was not possible to deliver reliable speech-naturalness feedback to the adult ESL speaker, who also displayed a strong dialect. The study highlights the need to find strategies to improve interjudge agreement when using speech naturalness ratings with speakers who display a strong dialect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106, USA. rjingham@humanitas.ucsb.edu
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Ingham
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Finn
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Belknap
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013342:Stuttering / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*