Acoustic analyses of speech naturalness: a comparison between two therapeutic approaches.
BACKGROUND
acoustic analyses of speech naturalness.


OBJECTIVE
to use voice onset time (VOT) measure as a parameter of speech naturalness, comparing the outcome of two stuttering treatment procedures.


METHODS
12 adult stutterers were divided in two groups and submitted to the same Fluency Promotion Program (FPF). For GI: surface electromyography (EMG) was used as biofeedback.


RESULTS
the results indicate that for GI 50% of the participants presented a more natural sounding speech after the FPF, whereas for GII only 17% of the participants demonstrated adequate speech naturalness in the same period.


CONCLUSIONS
although the number of participants of this research was small, the association of EMG to a FPP seems to produce a more natural sounding speech.
Sassi
Fernanda Chiarion
FC
Fonoaudióloga, Doutora em Ciências pela Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. fsassi@usp.br
de Andrade
Claudia Regina Furquim
CR
D000328:Adult; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013342:Stuttering / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D014833:Voice Quality / Q000502:physiology