كاهش شدت لكنت زبان

REDUCE STAMMERING SEVERITY

TO DETERMINE WHETHER A SMALL PORTABLE INSTRUMENT COULD BE USED WITH SPEECH THERAPY TO REDUCE STAMMERING SEVERITY, AN ELECTRONIC SOUNDMAKING DEVICE WAS DEVELOPED. INDIVIDUALLY FITTED WITH MOLDED EARPLUGS, THE DEVICE WAS SIMILAR TO A HEARING AID BUT PRODUCED A CONSTANT TONE OF SUFFICIENT VOLUME TO INTERRUPT AUDITORY FEEDBACK DURING SPEECH AND THEREBY TO REDUCE THE CIRCULARITY OF NONFLUENCY. TO TEST THE DEVICE, SUBJECTS WERE SELECTED FROM GRADE SCHOOL, HIGH SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE. HALF OF THE SUBJECTS RECEIVED BIWEEKLY 1-HOUR SPEECH THERAPY FOR 6 MONTHS WITH THE USE OF THE AID. THE REMAINING SERVED AS CONTROLS AND RECEIVED NO THERAPY. EACH OF THE 24 SUBJECTS WAS PRE- AND POSTTESTED WITH (1) FOUR SUBSCALES OF THE WECHSLER ADULT INTELLIGENCE SCALE OR THE SAME SUBSCALES OF THE WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN, WHICHEVER WERE AGE APPROPRIATE, (2) THE IOWA SCALE OF SEVERITY, AND (3) THE GRAY ORAL READING TEST (EVALUATED IN TERMS OF TIME IN SECONDS TAKEN TO READ THE ASSIGNED PARAGRAPHS). PRETESTS INDICATED NO STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS ON AGE, INTELLIGENCE, OR THE GRAY TEST AND IOWA SCALE. ALSO, POSTTESTS INDICATED THAT THE GRAY TEST WAS NOT SIGNIFICANT BETWEEN THE TWO GROUPS IN PRE- AND POSTTRAINING ASSESSMENT. THE RATINGS ON THE IOWA SCALE, HOWEVER, INDICATED SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (BEYOND THE .05 LEVEL) AS COMPARED TO THE CONTROL GROUP. IN ADDITION, THE THERAPIST JUDGED 10 OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS AS IMPROVED, AND THE SUBJECTS THEMSELVES CONSIDERED THE DEVICE HELPFUL. FURTHER RESEARCH IS URGED, AND A SCHEMATIC DRAWING OF THE AID IS INCLUDED. A TABLE PRESENTS DATA, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS 12 ITEMS. (GD)