Speech Naturalness and Prolonged-Speech Treatments for Stuttering

Abstract

It is well known that unusual speech quality may result from stuttering treatments that are based on prolonged speech. However, empirical information concerning the speech quality associated with those treatments is lacking. The present study was designed to contribute such empirical information. Results indicated that speech quality assessments of posttreatment clients, using Martin, Haroldson, and Triden's (1984) speech naturalness scale, gave similar results regardless of whether they were based on monologues or conversations. The speech quality of those clients remained stable at the conclusion of their treatment program. Further, there was a significant, positive correlation between pretreatment speech measures and measures of speech naturalness made after the establishment of stutter-free speech. The subjects whose pretreatment stuttering was the most severe had posttreatment speech naturalness scores that were more than two scale values worse than the subjects whose pretreatment stuttering was the least severe. Speech naturalness scale scores are presented for nonstutterers and posttreatment stutterers and these data are compared with existing findings.