The most advanced portable stuttering treatment device.
In 1973, Dr. Charles Van Riper—the "father of stuttering therapy"—predicted that in 2050 spaceships from Andromeda would bring us "their bounty of superior science and knowledge," resulting in the end of war. Also in 2050, Van Riper predicted that a stutterer would develop a "biofeedback computer system" to monitor tension and mistiming in the vocal folds and lips, jaw, and tongue. This biofeedback computer system would make "adult stutterers completely fluent after just a few hours" in a speech clinic. Stutterers would wear a portable device for a month, then no longer need it.
The spaceships from Andromeda aren't here yet. The stuttering biofeedback system is.
Altered Auditory Feedback Features
The Pocket Speech Lab is the only stuttering treatment device with three types of altered auditory feedback:
Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) immediately reduces stuttering about 70% at normal speaking rates without training, mental effort, or abnormal-sounding or abnormally slow speech. 55% carryover fluency after removing the device, without speech therapy. With speech therapy, DAF can induce a slower speaking rate with stretched vowels to make even severe stutterers nearly 100% fluent.
Frequency-shifted auditory feedback (FAF) immediately reduces stuttering at normal speaking rates. Only Casa Futura Technologies stuttering treatment devices have octave-scale FAF downshifting (pitch shifting) to induce vocal fold relaxation, training the user to no longer need the device.
Masking auditory feedback (MAF) pulls stutterers out of silent blocks at the touch of a button. No other stuttering treatment device has MAF.
Vocal Tension Biofeedback Features
The Pocket Speech Lab analyzes your voice's frequencies and amplitudes, to determine whether your vocal folds are tense or relaxed. This information is provided in three ways:
A red light indicates tense vocal folds, which precede stuttering. The light changes to green when your vocal folds relax.
DAF/FAF switches on when your vocal folds are tense. The sound switches off when your vocal folds relax. This negative feedback trains you to produce relaxed, fluent speech without the aid of DAF/FAF, and thus no longer need the device.
A digital clock starts when you tense your vocal folds, and stops when you relax. This feature helps a speech-language pathologist assess the percentage of time a client's vocal folds are tense (e.g., thirty seconds in three minutes of oral reading).
A Parkinson's switch reverses these conditions. Too-relaxed, too-quiet, low-energy speech switch on the red light, switches on the DAF/FAF, and starts the clock. Adequate vocal fold tension and volume changes the light to green, switches off the sound, and stops the clock.
Anti-Background Noise Features
Voice activation (VOX) automatically switches sound on when the user speaks, and switches sound off when the user stops speaking. The device is completely silent when the user isn't speaking.
Noise-canceling directional microphone eliminates background noise at the source.
High-frequency filters remove background noise above the user's vocal range.
Dynamic expansion makes loud sounds (e.g., the user's voice) louder and quiet sounds (e.g., other people's voices) quieter.
Quarter-octave FAF effectively reduces stuttering yet is acoustically transparent if the device picks up background noise.
Automatic voice activation works best with a full-size headset, a throat microphone, or a cellphone earset with a long microphone boom. With the smallest cellphone earsets in noisy environments, the push-to-talk button on the SmallTalk is superior to the Pocket Speech Lab's automatic voice activation.
Other Features
The Pocket Speech Lab plugs into telephones. You hear your voice and the caller's voice in both ears; the caller hears your normal voice. Leave your Pocket Speech Lab plugged into your telephone and practice speech therapy on every call. (Not compatible with Nokia cellphones.)
Binaural (two ear) or monaural (one ear) sound. Binaural sound is 25% more effective than monaural sound and is recommended for severe stutterers; mild stutterers can get by with monaural sound.
35-7500 Hz frequency range clearly reproduces all vocal frequencies of adults and children.
9-volt battery last about 25 hours. AC adapter (included) doesn't charge the battery.
Removable belt clip.
Black case.
Two 3.5mm jacks for any standard microphone and headphones. One 2.5mm jack for any standard cellphone earset (except Nokia).
4.5" x 2.7" x 0.9" (11.5 cm x 7 cm x 2 cm).
5.1 ounces (145 grams); about the size of an iPod.
