Stuttering treated by graded delayed auditory feedback and contingency contracting

Abstract

A less intensive version of the Ingham and Andrews (1973b) programme which combined delayed auditory feedback and contingent reinforcement was tested for its effectiveness in treating stutterers. The value of inclusion of intensive group conversation without graded delayed auditory feedback (GDAF) was also tested. -- Two groups (n=4) of chronic male stutterers participated in a two-stage programme. During Stage I, subjects learned prolonged speech with the aid of delayed auditory feedback. Subjects in both groups were reinforced monetarily for progressing through the steps of Stage I and penalized for disfluencies by loss of a portion of a $10.00 deposit. One group also had intensive practice in group conversation without the speech situations outside the clinic. -- Seven subjects showed significant improvement in their fluency and speech rate measures after treatment. No differences between groups was found, thus there is no evidence that increased practice in group conversation was useful. The improvement of the group as a whole was not as great as that attained by subjects in the Ingham and Andrews study. The implications of this finding for the use of GDAP and reinforcement procedures in a counselling setting are discussed.