METHODS AND DEVICES FOR DELIVERING EXOGENOUSLY GENERATED SPEECH SIGNALS TO ENHANCE FLUENCY IN PERSONS WHO STUTTER

摘要

Methods and devices (10) generate an exogenous natural speech signal (10s) asan auditory stimulus to a user to enhance the fluency of persons who stutter.The natural speech signal (10s) is independent of the contemporaneous speechproduction of the stutterer and is provided by a voice gesture and can be aprolonged or sustained voice gesture sound such as a simple vowel, orconsonant, or vowel trains and the like. The second speech signal (10s) can betransmitted in advance of a speaking event or speech production of thestutterer and/or concurrently with a speaking event, either intermittently orcontinuous during the speaking event. The devices (10) of the instantinvention are configured to provide the voice based speech signal (10s) suchthat it is audible to the user and does not require feedback of the user's ownspeech allowing the user to speak at a substantially normal pace with enhancedfluency. The device (10) and methods can relay the signal (10s) based on amanual activation or automatically based on a detection of speech or astuttering event on the part of the user.