The Effects of Prosthetic Tactile Feedback on Persons Who Stutter

Vibrotactile speech feedback has been documented to enhance fluency in adults who stutter. Based on these data, researchers at the University of Mississippi have developed a prosthetic device that captures the speech signal of the speaker, converts this signal into tactile stimulation, and administers vibratory speech feedback to the speaker through a handheld stimulator. This patented device, as tested with a handheld tactile stimulator, has been documented as producing significant fluency enhancement comparable to that of other auditory speech feedback prosthetic devices. The purpose of this present study is to collect data measuring the effects of tactile speech feedback on overt stuttering frequency as a function of different bodily locations as a means to increase its wearability and improve user experience during activities of daily living. Twelve adults who stutter (AWS) ranging from 18 to 43 years of age were prompted to read various ~300 syllable passages under four different conditions: a no stimulation control speaking condition and experimental speaking conditions that tactilely stimulated the hand, dominant wrist, and dominant foot. Results suggest a significant main effect of tactile speech feedback on fluency enhancement, with Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons revealing that the foot condition provided significantly better fluency enhancement than other speaking conditions. Prosthetic implementation and future applications of the device are discussed