A novel approach for measuring social participation in adults who stutter

Abstract

This paper reports a preliminary study which trialled a novel approach for measuring speech output and social participation. The amount of phonation was accumulated via an objective measure called an Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM).

Purpose: (1) To establish whether adults who stutter will tolerate wearing an APM for an extended period of time (three days), (2) to test whether the APM can accumulate useful data about the amount of phonation adults who stutter produce in the course of a normal day and (3) to examine a possible relationship between stuttering severity and amount of phonation.

Method: Three adults who stutter wore an APM for three consecutive days during their waking hours. Each completed a questionnaire regarding the device and kept a speech diary outlining daily speaking activities and self-reported stuttering severity. APM data regarding amount of phonation was collected, analysed and compared with the participants' speech diaries.

Results: Each adult tolerated wearing the APM and while they felt comfortable speaking wearing the device, it was somewhat cumbersome. Variations in the amount of speaking across each day and in different speaking situations were evident. For two participants there was a positive correlation between phonation time and severity rating.

Conclusions: Preliminary data suggests that the APM can provide valuable information about the amount adults who stutter speak. The APM is sufficiently sensitive to differentiate variations in the amount of phonation during different speaking situations. These favourable preliminary results suggest the value of a larger scale study.

Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) describe the different aspects of stuttering currently routinely measured in clinical practice; (b) discuss the limitations of current measurement procedures; (c) discuss the advantages of speech measures obtained by an Ambulatory Phonation Monitor APM); (d) describe the perspectives of adults who stutter who have worn an APM to measure phonation time.

Keywords: Adults; Ambulatory Phonation Monitor; Measurement; Social participation; Stuttering.