Masking Auditory Feedback (MAF)

If you have silent blocks, in which you can't make a sound, you'll want a device with masking auditory feedback (MAF). You push a button and the device pulls you out of the block.

MAF is a synthesized sine wave at your fundamental frequency (not "white noise"). This sound fools your brain into thinking that your vocal folds are vibrating. Your vocal folds relax and start vibrating.

The Edinburgh Masker, popular in the 1980s, helped many stutterers improve their speech over time, until they no longer needed the device. Other stutterers found that the device "wore off" and became ineffective. Still other stutterers have used the device for more than twenty years with no carryover or "wearing off." No research investigated why the device had different effects on different people. My guess is that some users used the devices to support therapy skills, but others used the devices to avoid therapy and support poor motor skills.

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