A Kinematic Analysis of Respiratory-Function in a Group of Stutterers Pretreatment and Posttreatment

The respiratory abilities of a group of seven stutterers were investigated during performance of a variety of speech tasks by means of a kinematic analysis carried out immediately prior to stuttering treatment, immediately following treatment, and at 1-month posttreatment. Movements of the chest wall during both steady speech tasks (i.e., sustained-vowels and syllable repetitions) and conversational speech were found to alter following treatment, the changes in respiratory function occuring in parallel to an improvement in stuttering. The majority of the stutterers produced fewer abnormal movements of the chest wall following treatment. In addition, there was a tendency for the relative contribution of the abdomen to the reduction in lung volume during speech production to increase posttreatment, possibly as the result of either a direct effect of the stuttering treatment employed or an indirect effect associated with a lower level of speech anxiety posttreatment. Overall, the results suggest that the respiratory kinematic procedure is effective in the monitoring of changes in respiratory patterns during speech production in the stuttering population. The potential of a kinematic technique as a biofeedback method to be used as an adjunct to traditional stuttering therapy procedures is highlighted