Data processing: speech signal processing – linguistics – language – Speech signal processing – Application
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-18
2004-06-22
Dorvil, Richemond (Department: 2654)
Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language
Speech signal processing
Application
C600S023000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06754632
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to devices and methods for enhancing the fluency of persons who stutter.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, stuttering has been treated by several different types of treatment, including psychiatric therapy, drug therapy, and the use of altered auditory feedback, generated by electrical signal processing devices, relayed to the person who stutters. These techniques can be generally characterized as either endogenous alterations of the speech signal output, such as prolonged or slowed speech, rhythmic speech, signing, and lipped speech, or exogenous dynamic alterations of the speech signal itself, both of which can successfully induce relatively fluent speech in people who stutter. See, e.g., O. Bloodstein, A
Handbook on Stuttering
(5
th
ed. Singular, San Diego, Calif., 1995).
It is believed that exogenous auditory alterations of speech, such as chorus reading, shadow speech, delayed auditory feedback, and frequency altered feedback, or a visual modality of treatment, such as visual choral speech, can generally produce more powerful and natural sounding reductions in stuttering than incongruous non-speech auditory inputs, such as masking noise and clicking, or visual inputs, such as flashing lights.
Two types of altered auditory feedback which have been used to treat stuttering include delayed auditory feedback (“DAF”) and the introduction of a masking noise or masked auditory feedback (“MAF”). Generally described, DAF imposes a delay on the delivery of a feedback speech signal to a speaker/stutterer, while MAF serves to compete with a speaker's auditory feedback.
For example, M. E. Wingate, in
Stuttering: theory and treatment
, p. 237 (Irvington, 1976), describes a type of altered auditory feedback which can include DAF to provide emphasis on phonation, i.e., slowing speech down to extend syllable duration. However, this type of auditory feedback or fluency enhancement is conventionally thought to be achievable with or without the use of DAF as long as syllable prolongation was employed. See, e.g., W. H. Perkins,
From Psychoanalysis to Discoordination
, in H. H. Gregory (Ed.)
Controversies about stuttering therapy
, pp. 97-127 (University Press,
1979)
. See also Andrew Stuart et al.,
Fluent Speech, Fast Articulatory Rate, and Delayed Auditory Feedback: Creating a Crisis for A Scientific Revolution
?, 82 Perceptual and Motor Skills, pp. 211-218 (1996).
Generally stated, the reduction in stuttering frequency under speech signal alterations has been attributed to entrained rhythm, distraction, modified vocalization, and rate reduction. Indeed, in the past, slowed speech rates were found to be an important factor in the reduction of stuttering. For example, in W. H. Perkins et al.,
Phone rate and the effective planning time hypothesis of stuttering
, 29 Jnl. Of Speech and Hearing Research, 747-755 (1979), the authors reported that stuttering was virtually eliminated when speakers reduced speech by approximately 75%. However, other reports have found that rate reduction is neither necessary, nor sufficient, for fluency enhancement. See Kalinowski, et al.,
Stuttering amelioration at various auditory feedback delays and speech rates
, European Journal of Disorders of Communication, 31, 259-269 (1996); Stuart et al.,
Fluent speech, fast articulatory rate, and delayed auditory feedback: Creating a crisis for a scientific revolution
?, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, 211-218 (1996); MacLeod, et al.,
Effect of single and combined altered auditory feedback on stuttering frequency at two speech rates
, Journal of Communication Disorders, 28, 217-228 (1995); Kalinowski et al.,
Effect of normal and fast articulatory rates on stuttering frequency
, Journal of Fluency Disorders, 20, 293-302 (1995);. Hargrave et al,
Effect of frequency altered feedback on stutterers' fluency at two speech rates
, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 1113-1119 (1994); and Kalinowski et al.,
The effects of alterations in auditory feedback on stuttering frequency
, Language and Speech, 36, 1-16 (1993).
Recently, a portable therapeutic device and related stuttering enhancement treatment methods were described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,443 to Rastatter et al., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein. These devices and methods employ altered auditory feedback (auditory delay and/or frequency shift signals) to be delivered to a stutterer via a portably configured device. Despite the above, there remains a need to provide improved methods and devices for treating stuttering to enhance fluency in an effective easily implemented manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects are satisfied by the present invention by methods and devices which employ a “second” exogenously generated speech signal which is produced by a sound or sounds corresponding to spoken vocal utterances or natural speech (independent of the in situ uttered speech of the speaker/stutterer). The second exogenous speech signal can alternatively be generated by other than spoken speech so as to simulate natural speech sounds (such as generated electronically, mechanically, or electromechanically); these simulated sound(s) should be configured to simulate the voice gestures which trigger the auditory cortex of the speaker. The second speech signal of the instant invention can be used as an alternative to DAF or MAF, which typically manipulates, alters, or interferes or competes with the contemporaneous speech of the speaker himself (or herself). The second speech signal of the instant invention is an auditory stimulus which is a spoken speech signal (that is, a voice gesture associated with a vocal cord of a person). The second speech signal can be either stuttered or fluent, and/or coherent (a string of meaningful sounds forming words) or incoherent (the sound(s) having no understandable or meaningful content).
Preferably, the second speech signal comprises a prolonged uttered or spoken sound associated with a natural voice gesture such as a single syllabic vowel or consonant or a combination of vowels and/or consonants. The second speech signal of the instant invention can be relayed to the user such that it is intermittent, sustained for a determined period of time, or substantially continuous with the speech production of a user/patient undergoing treatment for stuttering.
Preferably, the second or exogenously generated auditory speech signal of the instant invention is generated exogenously by someone other than the speaker or patient/stutterer (or generated by a device which can substantially replicate a vocal tract output in order to trigger the auditory cortex of the speaker, as noted above). It is also preferred that the second speech signal be recorded and stored in advance of use such that it can be conveniently and reliably provided or audibly relayed to the speaker at a desirable time (and repeatable at appropriate times).
In one embodiment, the exogenously generated second speech signal is a spoken prolonged speech sound (such as the last sound in the word “sudden”). It is more preferred that the prolonged speech sound is a steady state single syllabic sound. It is still more preferred that the prolonged speech sound is a vocal tract output associated with producing a steady state vowel sound. The exogenously generated speech signal can be provided at the start of speech of a person or patient prone to stuttering and/or episodically during speech, such as when a person starts to stutter or is experiencing a stuttering event, or even just at intervals during fluent speech to inhibit the onset of a stuttering event.
The second speech signal can be provided as an arrangement of different voice gesture sounds, the output of which can be varied to alter the exogenously generated speech signal auditory stimulus provided to the patient, over time.
In preferred embodiments, the second or exogenously generated speech signal is pre-recorded and relayed to the user at a desired or appropriate
Kalinowski Joseph
Rastatter Michael
Stuart Andrew
Dorvil Richemond
East Carolina University
Lerner Martin
Myers Bigel & Sibley Sajovec, PA
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