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How it works
SpeechEasy is similar in appearance to a hearing aid. However, rather than amplifying sound, SpeechEasy alters sounds that goes through the device so that you hear your voice at a slight time delay and at a different pitch. The purpose of the delay and pitch change is to recreate a natural phenomenon known as the “choral effect.” The choral effect occurs when your stutter is dramatically reduced or even eliminated when you speak or sing in unison with others. This choral effect has been well documented for decades and SpeechEasy utilizes it in a small, wearable device that can be used in everyday life.
"As a speech pathologist who stutters, I am in a unique position to assess SpeechEasy's life-changing effects. For more than twenty years, I used conventional forms of fluency therapy to help control my speech. But for a variety of reasons, the effectiveness of such therapy began to diminish over the past couple of years. I've been using SpeechEasy for more than six years, and I'm getting better and better at enhancing it's effects in those 'difficult' situations."
Cliff G., M.S., CCC-SLP
ASHA Recognized Fluency Specialist
User for over 3 years, Portland, OR
Stuttering treatment has come a long way. The use of altered auditory feedback (AAF) in helping people who stutter has been around for a long time. This stuttering treatment to help people become more fluent remained essentially a clinical challenge for such a long time due to the large bulky stuttering devices that were used to provide the effects.
SpeechEasy Fluency Devices
These fluency devices are small and inconspicuous - developed through recent advances in technology that has allowed them to be used outside of clinical environments. SpeechEasy fluency devices are based on a natural phenomenon called the "choral effect." The "choral effect" occurs when people who stutter speak or sing in unison with others and their stutter is dramatically reduced or even eliminated. This "choral effect" has been well documented for decades; however it is only recently that scientists have been able to recreate it in a small, wearable device for stuttering treatment that can used in everyday life.
SpeechEasy fluency devices are worn similar to a hearing aid, using Altered Auditory Feedback. However, unlike hearing aids, rather than amplify sound, SpeechEasy devices use a system of Altered Auditory Feedback (AAF) to recreate and optimize the choral effect. What this means is that when someone wears a SpeechEasy device and speaks, their words are digitally replayed in their ear with a very slight delay and frequency modification. As a result, the brain perceives that it is speaking in unison with another person. This perception of "speaking in unison" creates the "choral effect", thus becoming a stuttering treatment that can reduce or even eliminate stuttering.
