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Stuttering relapse: The effect of a combined speech and psychological reconstruction programme
Author(s) -
Evesham Margaret,
Fransella Fay
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
international journal of language and communication disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.101
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1460-6984
pISSN - 1368-2822
DOI - 10.3109/13682828509012265
Subject(s) - stuttering , psychology , construct (python library) , fluency , developmental psychology , audiology , mathematics education , medicine , computer science , programming language
ABSTRACT An investigation was carried out to test the hypothesis that stutterers who achieved fluent speech during two weeks of intensive treatment would be less likely to relapse if they were also helped to reconstrue themselves as fluent people. Forty eight stutterers were randomly allocated to a technique or a construct group. By means of a form of behaviour modification they were helped to speak fluently. Then the treatment of the technique group focused on the practice of fluent speech in many situations while the construct group were helped to reconstrue this fluency along the lines of personal construct therapy. The treatment proved to be effective in reducing stuttering behaviour and the relapse rate was low. A comparison of the groups showed that the construct group had a significantly lower relapse rate than the technique group.