Disorder that affects between 1 – 2% of world adult population. It impedes that subjects can communicate with others in the manner they wish. From the perspective of the listener, the disturbance is characterized by frequent repetitions or prolongations of sounds and syllables, although it includes also other types of speech dysfluencies, broken words, audible or silent blockings or circumlocutions, among others.
Published in Chapter:
An Advanced Concept of Altered Auditory Feedback as a Prosthesis-Therapy for Stuttering Founded on a Non-Speech Etiologic Paradigm
Manuel Prado-Velasco (University of Seville, Spain) and Carlos Fernández-Peruchena (University of Seville, Spain)
Copyright: © 2011
|Pages: 43
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-206-0.ch006
Abstract
Persistent Developmental Stuttering affects 1-2% of the world adult population. Its etiology is still unknown, although modern neuroimaging techniques have shown a new and exciting perspective of earlier ideas and hypotheses. However, it is now clear that a new approach to understand the true nature of the disorder is needed. We present a new etiological model of persistent developmental stuttering based on a deep analysis of earlier models and on the stuttering phenomenology, described in basic, clinical, and even ethnographic sources. One of the more stimulating conclusions has been the suggestion that stuttering is a non-speech based disorder, in opposition to the accepted belief. The implications of this model have guided the design of a new adaptive AAF device for prosthetic and therapeutic functions. It is supported by a wearable multimodal intelligent system, which evolves from a preliminary proposal presented in (Prado & Roa, 2007).