Roger J. Ingham

Stuttering: Considerations in the Evaluation of Treatment.

Stutterers come for help because their disorder of speech is a nuisance that impedes their ability to communicate and generates unpleasant affects when they contemplate doing what normal speakers accomplish easily. Successful treatment should enable them to speak normally and be able to use this speech to interact with their environment in the same way that normal speakers do, and be as confident or as anxious as normal speakers find themselves as the speaking situation varies. In any treatment programme therefore there are three problems. Firstly, to establish criteria that distinguish between stuttering and normal speech, secondly, to be able to measure the severity of the disorder and the subsequent progress towards normality and thirdly, to be able to evaluate empirically the relation of the final result to normal speech. This paper is addressed to these problems.

Stuttering: The quality of fluency after treatment

Abstract Two groups of stutterers who received syllable-timed speech therapy (ST) and the Goldiamond speech modification procedure (G.D.A.F.) respectively were matched before treatment on three measures contributing to severity. Toward the end of treatment although frequency of stuttering and rate of speech showed similar improvement for both groups, differences were apparent in the quality of speech. Subjects receiving S.T. speech showed more evidence of secondary debilitating stutters were limited in their optimal rate and tended to make errors when this was exceeded. Subjects receiving G.D.A.F. and a similar procedure showed more acceptable primary stutters and experienced no limitation in attaining their optimal speech rate.

The effects of general anxiety on group desensitization of test anxiety

Abstract The present study investigated the influence of general anxiety in facilitating or impeding the reduction of test anxiety by short term group desensitization. Fifty-nine male academic failure students served as S s selected on the basis of extreme scores on the debilitating scale of Alpert and Habers Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT). Thirty-one S s were randomly assigned to treatment and the remainder to either a motivated no-treatment control group ( N =6) or a no-contact control group ( N =22). The 31 treatment S s were then divided into high and low general anxiety groups on the basis of their IPAT Anxiety Scale scores. Test and general anxiety measures were administered post-treatment, and in a 14 week follow-up session. In comparison to the two no-treatment control groups ( N =28), the treatment S s reported a significant reduction in test anxiety on the AAT over the 19 weeks from pre-treatment to 14 week follow-up period. No significant differences in test anxiety reduction were found between the high and low general anxiety treatment S s over the same period ; however, a strong trend favouring the high general anxiety group was noted at the post-treatment stage. No significant changes in the level of general anxiety were observed in any group over the period of the study. It was suggested that future studies investigate individual differences relating to the interaction of neuroticism and general anxiety and their effect upon responses to desensitization.

Stuttering: a comparative evaluation of the shortterm effectiveness of four treatment techniques☆

Abstract Two behaviour modification treatment techniques were combined with the Andrews and Harris (1964) syllable-timed-speech stuttering therapy programme for the purpose of improving short term treatment outcome. Four treatment variables, syllable-timed-speech, group psychotherapy, increased stuttering and a token system were used in various combinations with fifty-eight adult stutterers. The results were examined by a two-way analysis of variance in order to isolate the efficacy of each treatment agent. The combination of syllable-timed-speech and the token system was found to be the most effective combination of treatments used for reducing stuttering and increasing rate of speech within the therapy period.

The relation between anxiety reduction and treatment

Abstract The authors were unable to discover reports in the literature that established a clear and ambiguous relationship between anxiety reduction and improvement in stuttering. Furthermore, they were unsatisfied that therapies in which the intended treatment agent is anxiety reduction may actually produce their effect by this means. They report a programme of treatment using feedback modification techniques in which, despite a substantial decline in stuttering, there was no decline in measures of general and state anxiety.

Stuttering: An evaluation of follow-up procedures for syllable-timed speech / token system therapy

Abstract A token system was designed (Ingham, Andrews and Winkler 1972) to improve the results of treatment with Syllable-Timed speech. The outcome after nine months is reported for 58 adult stutterers. One group received Syllable-Timed speech alone, other groups were assisted by the Token System. After the intensive treatment phase (Ingham et al. 1972) three different follow-up procedures were utilized - weekly Group Psychotherapy and speech therapy, monthly sessions utilizing the Token System and no treatment at all. A group which was not treated by the Token System took nine months to approximate the performance level which was reached by Token System treated groups after two weeks of intensive treatment. However, regardless of whether the Token System groups received weekly, monthly or even no follow-up treatment, their performance at the end of nine months was not significantly different from their performance at the beginning of the follow-up period. The usefulness of Syllable-Timed speech as a therapeutic technique and the economy in treatment time effected by the Token System are discussed.