Kalveram, K.Th. (1997) Zur Theorie und Therapie des Stotterns. Sprache - Stimme - Gehör , 21, 130-139. PDF-Download
Abstract
Speaking is considered a sensorimotor and stuttering a neuropsychological disturbation of speaking. This suggests an explanation of stuttering consequently based on control theoryand related issues. The main components of the presented theory can be traced back to information thory (regards speaking as parallel to serial transformation, with the vocal nucleus used as the synchronization signal), control theory (regards speaking as tool use, demanding the inversion of the tool transformation), theory of motor learning (assumes auto-imitationas a means to aquire the inverse tool transformation, which however leads to an 'ill-posed problem' causing misguided learning), linguistics (draws attention to the double function of the vocal nucleus as synchronization signal and prosodic carrier), developmental psychology (points to the rearrangement of the prosodic flow, and therefore also fo the neural speech controller at an age of about four years), and the rpoperties of audio-phonatoric coupling (indicating that stressed and unstressed syllables require different types of control). Simulations using scenarios reflecting distinct kinds of stuttering show, that the derived model tends to iterate syllables respectively parts of syllables, which follows the first auto-immitation process establishing speaking basically, which however has been misguided. Consequences concerning basic therapeutical interventions in stuttering are shortly discussed.
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