Modification of maintenance and generalization during stuttering treatment

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Behavioral Psychology

Background:

• Stuttering treatment requires effective maintenance and generalization strategies.
• Performance-contingent schedules are used to reinforce therapeutic gains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess a procedure for maintaining and generalizing stuttering treatment gains.
• To compare contingent versus noncontingent schedule conditions for stuttering maintenance.

Main Methods:

• Nine stutterers participated in BAB and ABA experimental designs.
• A performance-contingent schedule of decreasing within-clinic assessments was used.
• Speech behavior was assessed within-clinic, outside-clinic, and covertly.

Main Results:

• The performance-contingent schedule maintained and generalized stuttering reductions.
• Both groups showed reduced stuttering percentages and increased syllables per minute.
• Covert assessment data aligned with outside-clinic performance for only 6 of 9 subjects.

Conclusions:

• Performance-contingent schedules show promise for stuttering treatment maintenance and generalization.
• Clinical validity is moderated by the consistency of covert assessment data.
• Further research is needed to refine covert assessment reliability in stuttering studies.