Office Hours: The Professor Is In

Effectiveness of DAF in Stuttering

From: Charlie Healey
Date: 10 Oct 2012
Time: 12:25:35 -0500
Remote Name: 129.93.227.150

Comments

Hi Jack. Many people who stutter can achieve quick and immediate increases in fluency when speaking in the presence of a delay in the auditory feedback. The effects can vary from person to person but usually the percentage of improvement is quite high particularly when the delay is 200-250 msec. The delay speed is an important variable to consider when seeing how much fluency is achieved. However, one thing to remember about DAF or any other form of altered feedback is that the effects tend to temporary. So, yes, DAF is effective in reducing stuttering in the population of people who stutter but the effects are not long lasting unless there is a gradual process of shaping the fluency achieved with the DAF device to having the person who stutters learn how to adopt a similar pattern of speech without the device.


Last changed: 10/22/12