Peter J. Alfonso
Dept. of Speech and Hear. Sci., Univ. of Illinois, 901 So. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820-6206
Joseph S. Kalinowski
Dalhousie Univ., Halifax, NS, Canada
Within-subject pre- and post-therapy kinematic comparisons of two groups of stutterers who successfully completed one of two intensive therapy programs revealed that certain aberrant kinematic profiles can be modified as a result of therapy, that post-therapy improvement in fluency co-occurred with spatial and temporal adjustments in each of the three systems, that some of the post-therapy kinematic modifications were in the direction of normal speech kinematics observed in the control subjects, and that certain modifications occurred across both groups of stutterrers although the clinical instructions differed. While some of the kinematic modifications appear related to specific clinical strategies associated with each therapy program, those that occurred across both groups of stutterers do not and may be related to normal motor control strategies that underline the production of rapid, perceptually fluent speech. [Work supported by NIH DC 00121 awarded to Haskins Laboratories.]