Speaking Slowly

Speech-language pathologists often ask parents of children who stutter to reduce their conversational pace when talking with their children. Little is known, however, about how best to help parents accomplish this task. Two experiments were conducted to examine this issue. In Experiment 1, adult females altered speech rate via one of four self-guided methods. Post-training speech rates for all four experimental groups ( n =8) were significantly slower than those of speakers in a control group. The extent of rate reduction varied significantly across groups, and speakers rated their resultant speech as unnatural. In Experiment 2, 39 female listeners rated the naturalness of sentences from the five groups in Experiment 1. Naturalness ratings were higher for the Control group than for a group using a self-devised rate-reduction method (SDM). In turn, SDM ratings were higher than those for groups trained to alter articulation rate and intra-sentence pauses. Across groups, the slower a speaker's post-training speech rate, the less natural listeners judged the speech to sound ( r = 95). Results suggest that although none of the methods were clearly superior, adults can readily produce moderately slower, relatively natural sounding speech using self-devised methods. Speakers' and listeners' perceptions of speech naturalness may differ considerably, however, and this must be considered during training.