Effect of acoustical, visual and tactile echo on speech fluency of stutterers

The study presents the comparison of the effects of echo transmitted via single and combined channels (auditory, visual and tactile) on the speech of stutterers. The dependence of stuttering intensity and speech velocity upon echo delay time was determined. For all transmission channels the stuttering intensities and the speech velocities decreased with the increase in the delay time of the echo. The results were analyzed statistically by means of the ANOVA method. It was proven that the corrective effects of visual echo and tactile echo were comparable. Echo transmitted via the auditory channel was more effective than when transmitted via the visual or tactile channels. The greatest efficiency could be observed by transmitting echo via three connected channels: auditory, visual and tactile. The results obtained show that in stuttering therapy it is justified to use echo transmitted via three connected channels (auditory, visual, tactile).