Pod Academy

There is well documented evidence that if you change how a stammerer hears they way they are speaking, they will stammer less.  Using this finding, 10 years ago saw the introduction of new devices (especially in-ear devices) that purported to help people stop stammering.  But these fluency aids have not lived up to early promise- indeed many  people who were thought to be 'cured' have found their stammer is back, as marked as before. Now Oliver Cheadle has been conducting new research at UCL, this time using vibration, through the skin, rather than sound.  He discusses his findings with Lee Millam in this podcast. Oli used a vibrotactile device.   On average, the device reduced stuttering by 22%, but the average figure masks massive variation. Vibrotactile speech feedback significantly reduced stuttering, albeit much less so than in previous studies (an average 22% reduction in stuttering as compared to an average 71-80% reduction in earlier studies). The different types of vibrotactile speech feedback u