ABSTRACT
The decision as to what to include under a heading of “alternative” treatment approaches automatically reflects on what can be considered “mainstream” therapy, and this must take the form of a somewhat arbitrary decision. Throughout chapters 10 to 13 I have referred to established approaches which have been based on interaction between a qualified speech and language therapist/speech and language pathologist (SLT/SLP) resting, broadly speaking, on the tenet that therapy can focus on: (a) altering vocal tract dynamics to increase levels of fluency; (b) changing the client’s behavioural, cognitive and affective responses to stuttering; or (c) a combination of these two strategies. The approaches described in the present chapter appear because they fail, in various ways, to fulfil these assumptions. For example, altered auditory feedback therapy works on the basis that stuttering occurs as a result of faulty auditory processing, rather than faulty speech production. Although this is hardly a new idea (for example, Van Riper was making a claim for a faulty auditory processing component to the disorder over three decades ago), the form that therapy takes does not directly address these beliefs. On the other hand, the use of altered auditory feedback in the form described in this chapter looks to the feedback altering devices themselves to provide the fluency enhancing effects in the form of a prophylaxis. Their set-up requires either minimal or no input from a clinician.
