Though electronic devices that are designed to help stutterers speak more fluently have been available for several years, researchers are still trying to understand how well they work and how long any helpful effects last. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, about three million Americans of all ages stutter, a speech disorder in which a person repeats or extends a sound so much that it makes communication a struggle.
Types
While stuttering sometimes worsens when speaking in public or talking on the phone, it sometimes improves when the talker sings or speaks in unison. Electronic devices generally use the fluency improvements that are gained from speaking in unison by using interactive computer based programs or separate mobile units. According to the Stuttering Foundation of America, such devices seem to have helped some stutterers to a degree, but have disappointed other users who had sought immediate, permanent solutions. So don't look for a miracle cure.
Find a reputable speech-language therapist to help determine whether or best use the devices. Although some devices are for use at home, many are sold only to therapists and can cost up to around $4,000 without any subsidies.
The technologies these electronic devices employ -- either separately or combined -- include "delayed auditory feedback," which plays back speech into the stutterer's ear a fraction of a second after the stutterer has spoken. Another method is "frequency-altered auditory feedback," which alters the pitch of the speech as it is played back, somehow affecting tension in the stutterer's vocal folds. Yet another method is "masking auditory feedback," which uses a synthesized sound to help pull stutterers out of "sound blocks" or moments when they can't speak.
Brands
Casa Futura Technologies, founded by recovering stutterer Thomas David Kehoe, offers devices that utilize the various auditory feedback techniques that can be used at home, a practitioner's office and over the phone.
CAFET (or Computer Aided Fluency Establishment Trainer) is an interactive computer software program with hardware that helps therapists work with patient's breathing and speaking skills. It comes with a plug-in circuit board, respiratory sensor and tie-clip microphone.
Kay Elementrics, in collaboration with voice pathologist and scientist Dr. Daniel Boone, developed several devices including the Facilitator, which combines an array of auditory feedback technologies in one unit. SpeechEasy Research Group offers devices that are worn like hearing aids and use the delayed feedback and frequency shift technologies. The Hollins Communications Research Institute also has created an iPhone application to help treat speech impediments.
Warnings
In his 2006 open-source book, "No Miracle Cures: A Multifactoral Guide to Stuttering Therapy" Kehoe warns that children under age 6 should not use any such electronic devices. And children ages 6 to 13 should use them only under a practitioner's or parent's supervision, or limited unsupervised use, as needed. He also encourages all stutterers to have hearing tests done before using devices that plug up the ear and pump sound directly into it.
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