Disclaimer - I believe that the best therapy for stuttering involves accepting your stutter and finding ways to stutter in more easy, relaxed way. That said, I think there are times when electronic fluency aids can help people who stutter speak more easily in challenging situations. ![]() It is well known that a metronome beat can help people who stutter achieve more fluent speech. Some theorists argue that stuttering is caused by a difficulty coordinating the rapid movements involved in speech at the correct time (e.g. Howell, 2011). I am interested in vibrating metronomes (i.e. small devices that allow you to feel rather than hear a beat) as a way to help achieve more fluent speech. If you want to know whether a metronome beat might help you, try an online metronome (Google has its own here) and set the speed to something low like 70 beats per minute. There are also vibrating metronome apps available for your phone - however, I find the vibration too loud to use in real life, but this might be a good way to see if a vibrating metronome could help you. ![]() Once you have a metronome running, try speaking one syllable or word per beat. This creates a very slow, rhythmic speech that often results in more fluent speech. Now try speaking with the metronome beat again and this time speak at a more normal rate while only focusing on the beats when you are expecting a word to be difficult. If you found the metronome beat helpful then a vibrating metronome might be useful for you. Below is a description of how to put a Bluetooth vibrating metronome together. It doesn't require any electronics skills! This project makes use of a smartphone with Bluetooth, a small vibration speaker, a Bluetooth receiver, and (optional) a small Bluetooth remote to let you trigger a vibrating metronome when you need it. It has the following advantages over more complicated and much more expensive devices like SpeechEasy and VoiceAmp:
Parts:
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Setting it up:
Creating the ankle mount:
![]() Make the Bluetooth media button easy to use in your pocket:
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AuthorMy name is Oli. I am a speech and language therapist and also a person who stutters. Archives |