Auditory thresholds and the effect of reduced auditory feedback of suttering

The effects of reduced auditory feedback were investigated using an accurately calibrated binaudal pure tone producer on 27 stuttering children and 68 non-stuttering controls. A comparison was made of both auditory hearing and discomfort thresholds in the two groups; the hearing thresholds did not differ between the groups. The results did however replicate an earlier finding which suggested that stutters have a lower threshold for auditory discomfort than do normal speakers, and showed that fluency is inversely related to auditory feedback. The discussion suggests that a necessary cause of stuttering is a physiological abnormality in side-tone conduction and central processing.