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Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Childhood Stuttering/Auditory Processing

Brain scans of adult stutterers have found two abnormalities associated with stuttering.

One neurological abnormality is underactivity in the auditory processing area (this chapter). The other neurological abnormality is overactivity in the speech motor control area.

This combination of over- and underactivity may explain why the "conventional wisdom" told to stutterers is a contradiction of trying harder and relaxation, e.g. "try harder to relax."

No brain scans have done of stuttering children. We don't know whether these two neurological abnormalities cause stuttering or are caused by stuttering. It's possible that stuttering causes a child's brain to develop abnormally in these two areas. It's also possible that some children have one or both neurological abnormalities before they start stuttering, which cause them to stutter.

No one is certain exactly what's wrong with adult stutterer's auditory processing area. Stutterers have normal hearing, i.e., there's nothing wrong with our ears. A study suggested that adult stutterers have an inability to integrate auditory and somatic processing. I.e., we may have an inability to compare what we hear ourselves saying to what we feel our muscles doing. This may explain why we have poorly coordinated speech muscle movements.

Altered Auditory Feedback

Changing how stutterers hear their voices improves fluency. This can be done in many ways:

 Speaking in chorus with another person. Hearing your voice distorted. Hearing your vocal fold vibration (phonation) without hearing the articulation of your lips, jaw, and tongue. Hearing a synthesized sound mimicking your phonation (masking auditory feedback, or MAF). Hearing your voice delayed a fraction of a second (delayed auditory feedback, or DAF).

Hearing your voice shifted higher or lower in pitch (frequency-shifted auditory feedback, or FAF).

Switching your voice from one ear to the other twenty times per second (binaural switching auditory feedback).

Together these phenomena are called altered auditory feedback. No studies have investigated the effects of altered auditory feedback on stutterers' brains. My hypothesis is that introducing errors targeted at the area that integrates auditory and somatic processing increases blood flow to that area. Such errors disconnect how you hear your voice from what you feel your muscles doing.

I.e., hearing what you are saying out of sync with what you feel your muscles doing raises a red flag. The red flag is raised in the area that is abnormally underactive in stutterers. It's like a poor little overlooked village suddenly saying, "The British are coming! Eureka! There's gold in them thar hills! We've struck oil! Aliens have landed!"

You can picture wagon trains, locomotives, and paratroopers descending on this sleepy little burg. In brain terms, more blood flows to this area. The activity level increases to normal.

The errors must not raise red flags in other brain areas, such as language processing. E.g., I built a device that, when you walked up to Fred and said, "Hi, Fred," the device whispered in your ear, "Hi, Steve." It didn't improve fluency. It just stopped everyone—stutterers or non-stutterers—from talking.

When stutterers hear altered auditory feedback, something feels right. You realize that all your life something was wrong but you didn't know it. Speaking just feels natural, like this is how we're supposed to talk.

In contrast, non-stutterers can't stand altered auditory feedback. I've amused many non-stutterers by putting a DAF/FAF anti-stuttering device on them and telling them to count to twenty. Most can't get to ten. They repeat or skip numbers, or giggle uncontrollably, then rip the headphones off.

If my hypothesis is correct, then altered auditory feedback increases blood flow to non-stutterers auditory/somatic integration area, raising activity to an abnormally high level. Too much activity is as bad as not enough activity. Interestingly, the effects of too much activity in this area are somewhat like stuttering—repeating words, or not being able to get words out.

Immediate Effects of Anti-Stuttering Devices

The most effective types of altered auditory feedback are delayed auditory feedback (DAF) and frequency-shifted auditory feedback (FAF). Each reduce stuttering about 70%, immediately, without training, speech therapy, mental effort, or abnormal-sounding speech. You just put the headphones on and talk. Combined DAF/FAF reduces stuttering about 80%.

Some "experts" say that DAF always makes you talk slowly and monotonously. They say that you can talk slowly without DAF so the devices are unnecessary. But several studies have shown that DAF (and FAF) reduce stuttering at normal and faster than normal speaking rates. The first such study was published in 1993. This is yet another example of Ph.D. university "experts" who claim to be scientists but instead tout unscientiﬁc "old wives’ tales" and don't read the research journals.

70-80% is the average improvement found in dozens of studies, with hundreds of stutterers. Rarely does DAF and/or FAF improve anyone's speech more than 90%, or less than 50%. If auditory processing underactivity were the only cause of stuttering, then DAF/FAF devices would make all stutterers 100% fluent. The 70-80% effectiveness shows that auditory processing underactivity is an important factor in stuttering, but not the only factor. To get closer to 100% fluency an anti-stuttering device has to be combined with speech therapy.

Should Adults Use Anti-Stuttering Devices?

The only treatment for the auditory processing abnormality is an altered auditory feedback device. No speech therapy can fix this abnormality.

Many people overcome stuttering by treating the other factors, e.g., fluency shaping therapy. But using an anti-stuttering device in conjunction with other therapies will make the other therapies easier, faster, and more effective. You'll then use your anti-stuttering device less and less.

Even if you have success with speech therapy and can talk fluently in most situations, there will be a few situations in which you stutter. Public speaking is usually that situation. You may want an anti-stuttering device for public speaking.

And I keep an anti-stuttering device plugged into my telephone. I pick up the phone and talk fluently. After a few calls my speech is improved for the rest of the day. Many states provide telephone-compatible anti-stuttering devices free.

Should Children Use Anti-Stuttering Devices?

Children under six shouldn't use anti-stuttering devices. Childhood stuttering therapy is usually 100% effective, so anti-stuttering devices are unnecessary.

Seven- to thirteen-year-olds can use anti-stuttering devices under the supervision of a speech-language pathologist or a parent trained by a speech-language pathologist, or for limited unsupervised uses such as a classroom presentation. If your child gets speech therapy in school only twenty minutes each week, buying a device can enable your child to do therapy at home for thirty minutes each day.

We don't know whether children who stutter have the same neurological abnormalities that adult stutterers have. Altering a child's brain activity might cause his brain to develop in a different way. Extensive use of an anti-stuttering device might cause the child's brain to develop normal auditory processing and the child would outgrow stuttering. But maybe extensive use of an anti-stuttering device would cause the child's brain to develop in another, unknown abnormal way.

Some anti-stuttering devices impair the user's hearing. Some devices occlude (block) the ear that the device is in. And some devices pick up, distort, and amplify background noise. If a child can't hear his teacher, he'll fall behind in school. He might get hit by a bus that he couldn't hear coming. Some users have reported symptoms of permanent hearing damage, such as ringing in the ears or pain from loud noises.

Delayed Auditory Feedback

If you've decided not to try an anti-stuttering device, you can skip the rest of this chapter.

If you want to talk at a normal speaking rate, set the DAF delay between 50 and 75 milliseconds. Don't use a delay longer than 75 milliseconds unless you're using slow speech.

I've seen this scenario over and over. A stutterer gets a 50% improvement at 50 milliseconds. He gets a 75% improvement at 75 milliseconds. He sees that the dial goes up to 200 milliseconds. He thinks, "I'll crank up this baby! I'll redline it! I'll turn it up all the way to 200 milliseconds and I'll be 200% fluent!"

Wrong. 200 milliseconds is for talking five to ten times slower. You can force yourself to ignore a 200 millisecond delay and talk at a normal speaking rate. You can train your auditory processing to be even less active.

Did you read that? Used incorrectly, a DAF device might make your auditory processing underactivity worse! This may explain why some stutterers have reported that a DAF device lost effectiveness or wore off.

Long-Term Effects of DAF

Nine adult stutterers used DAF devices thirty minutes per day, for three months. The thirty minutes consisted of ten minutes reading aloud, a ten-minute conversation with a family member, and a ten-minute telephone call. The subjects received no speech therapy.

Long-Term Effects of DAF

The device used was the School DAF, made by Casa Futura Technologies (my company), with a binaural (two ears) headset. The subjects were allowed to set the delay where they wanted. Most selected delays around 100 milliseconds.

Before the three months of DAF use, the subjects stuttered on 37% of words, on average. When they put on the DAF device their stuttering dropped to 10%. I.e., the device improved their speech about 70%.

Three months later the subjects stuttered on 17% of words, when not using the DAF device. When wearing the DAF device they stuttered on 13% of words.

This shows that, when not wearing the devices, the subjects' stuttering diminished from 37% of words to 17% of words, or a 55% improvement. This is "carryover fluency." Put another way, the device trained the users to no longer need the device.

The increase (from 10% to 13%) in stuttering when wearing the devices wasn't statistically significant. Examining this more closely, stuttering when wearing the device increased only for "automatic speech," such as reciting days of the week, and for repeating words and sentences after the examiner. No change in effectiveness was found in conversations or in a "picture description" task. This suggests that any "wearing off" effects occurred in less-important speaking situations.

The "carryover fluency" effect was the same across all speaking tasks.

Two other studies combined speech therapy with a DAF device. One study was of adults, the other of children. Both studies found that combining DAF and stuttering therapy trained the subjects to speak fluently (less than 2% stuttering) and no longer need the devices.

Frequency-Shifted Auditory Feedback

Frequency-shifted auditory feedback (FAF) shifts the pitch of your voice in your earphones. A FAF upshift makes you hear your voice sounding like Mickey Mouse. A FAF downshift makes you hear your voice sounding like a gravel-voiced radio announcer saying his station's call letters.

A quarter-octave pitch shift reduces stuttering about 35%. A half-octave pitch shift reduces stuttering about 65-70%. A full-octave pitch shift reduces stuttering about 70-75%.

Shifting pitch up or down is equally effective, in short-term studies, when the stutterer is wearing the device. But there may be a long-term difference between an up- or a downshift. FAF causes non-stutterers to speak at a higher or lower vocal pitch, depending on whether the device is set for an up or down frequency shift. This higher or lower pitch vocal pitch results from changing vocal fold tension. In other words, FAF induces changes in vocal fold tension in non-stutterers.

FAF Stuttering Reduction

You'll see in the chapter on speech motor control that vocal fold relaxation is a primary target of fluency shaping therapy. I.e., putting on a FAF device might induce in seconds what takes weeks in speech therapy.

A study found that my company's FAF devices, set for a half-octave downshift, didn't cause a change in vocal pitch in stutterers. But speech clinics have reported that my FAF devices induce vocal fold relaxation in stutterers. I've seen this myself. Usually stutterers need a greater pitch shift, between one-half and one octave down. Also the study used older headphones which lacked the bass response of today's headphones. I believe that a new study, using one-half or one octave downshifts (the gravel-voice) would find that the current devices induce vocal fold relaxation. I've also seen that FAF downshifts induce a slower speaking rate, similar to DAF. If this is true, then a FAF downshift should result in long-term carryover fluency and no longer needing the device.

Conversely, a FAF upshift (the Mickey Mouse voice) appears to induce vocal fold tension. And I've seen FAF upshifts induce faster speaking rates. If this is true, then a FAF upshift should result in poor long-term performance (e.g., no carryover fluency, and possibly "wearing off).

Types of FAF

All of the published studies of FAF used octave-scale FAF. Octave-scale FAF requires lots of computing power. My company's devices use octave-scale FAF. When you set my devices to a one-octave upshift, the 125-Hz fundamental frequency of an adult male voice is shifted up to 250 Hz. The 250 Hz first overtone of your voice is shifted to 500 Hz. The 500 Hz second overtone of your voice is shifted to 1000 Hz. And so on.

If you instead use a one-octave downshift, your 125 Hz voice is shifted in your earphones to 62 Hz. Your 250 Hz first overtone is shifted to 125 Hz, and so on.

Octave-Scale vs. Frequency-Compression FAF

But the tiny computers in hearing aids don't have enough processing power to produce octave-scale FAF. Instead, a simpler process uses frequency compression/expansion FAF. The upshift adds 500 Hz to your voice (or 1000 Hz or 2000 Hz, depending on the setting). Thus, your 125 Hz fundamental frequency is shifted to 625 Hz—more than two octaves up! Your 250 Hz first overtone is shifted to 750 Hz. Your 500 Hz second overtone is shifted to 1000 Hz.

When you switch frequency compression/expansion to downshift or subtract 500 Hz from your voice, your 125 Hz fundamental frequency vanishes. 125 Hz minus 500 Hz is nothing (there are no negative frequencies). The 250 Hz first overtone of your voice also vanishes. And the 500 Hz second overtone of your voice vanishes. You can only hear the weak third (1000 Hz) and higher overtones of your voice. When I tried a hearing aid-style DAF/FAF device, I heard my voice in my ear rise in pitch as the FAF was adjusted lower!

No published studies have investigated whether frequency compression/expansion FAF has an effect on stuttering. From what consumers and clinicians have told me, upward frequency compression FAF seems to have good immediate effects but poor long-term results. Downward frequency expansion FAF appears to have little or no effect on stuttering (in contrast, downward octave-scale FAF has excellent immediate and long-term results).

Long-Term Effects of DAF/FAF

Eight subjects (four adults, four children) used a hearing aid-style DAF/FAF device about seven hours per day, for four months. The delay was set at 60 milliseconds and the FAF at 500 Hz up (about two octaves). The subjects received brief speech therapy, specifically to prolong vowels and use "starter sounds" such as "um" and "ah."

Long-term effectiveness of hearing aid-style DAF/FAF device

Like the three-month DAF study, a small "wearing off" effect appears in the chart but isn't statistically significant.

Unlike the three-month DAF study, the "carryover fluency" effect is small and statistically insignificant. Did the 500 Hz upshift induce vocal fold tension and/or a faster speaking rate, thus canceling the long-term benefits of DAF?

Or does using an anti-stuttering device half an hour a day produces better long term results than using it seven hours a day (see Practice Scheduling).

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. 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 the device made users talk louder, which increases vocal fold tension, and some users habituated to speaking with too-tense vocal folds. For the users who developed carryover fluency, the device may have helped them overcome fears and anxieties, or they may have used the device to enhance stuttering therapy.

Sound Quality

Different anti-stuttering devices have different effects, due to differences in sound quality. It's like the difference between listening to Beethoven at a concert hall, or as a cellphone ringtone. It's also the difference between an effective and ineffective device.

Frequency Range

Different anti-stuttering devices have different frequency ranges. Generally, the bigger the microphone and earphones, the wider the frequency range.

My company's devices have a flat frequency response from 60 to 5000 Hz. This is the range of human voices, plus additional low range for FAF downshifting.

In contrast, hearing aids usually have a frequency range of 200 to 7000 Hz. The frequency ranges typically aren't flat, but instead are tuned to sound best somewhere around 3000 or 4000 Hz (where most people lose their hearing). The devices can't reproduce the low range of human voices, especially the fundamental frequency of phonation that's key to stuttering therapy.

Monaural vs. Binaural Sound

Binaural (two ears) sound is 25% more effective than monaural (one ear) sound. Some devices can be either binaural or monaural. Other devices are monaural only.

Warranties, Returns and Repairs

Read price sheets and warranties carefully. Are there hidden charges? Are the extra charges refundable if you return the device? How long is your trial period for returning the device? Do you get a full or partial refund?

Toss the device onto a hard floor (before you pay for it!). How breakable is it? How long is the warranty? Are repairs covered in all situations, or excluded if it was your fault that the device broke?

How easy would it be to lose a device, especially for a child?

Ask about the company's return rates. My company's return rate is less than 1%. Some companies have much higher return rates.

Background Noise Elimination

Some anti-stuttering devices work well in quiet speech clinics, but are unusable in a noisy restaurant. A variety of features help solve the background noise problem.

Noise-Canceling Microphones

Positioned correctly, a noise-canceling directional microphone eliminates background noise at the source. In contrast, the omnidirectional microphones in hearing aids pick up background noises louder than your voice.

Push-To-Talk Button

A "push to talk" button also eliminates background noise. You push a button and the device switches sound on. You let go of the button and the sound switches off.

In noisy environments you're usually in a group. E.g., you go out to a restaurant with three friends. You'll talk one-fourth of the time. Most of the time you sit and listen, with clear hearing. When you have something to say, you push the button.

This also works well for a child in school, who mostly listens and occasionally is called on by the teacher.

High-Frequency Filters

Most anti-stuttering devices have high-frequency filters to reduce noise above your vocal range. Some devices have adjustable filters, so that a man with a deep voice can set his device to filter out more background noise than a woman or a child with a high voice.

Voice Activation

Voice activation switches on sound when the user talks, and switches off sound when the user stops talking. That is, if the device has a noise-canceling directional microphone. If the device has an omnidirectional microphone, loud noises switch on sound.

My company's Pocket Speech Lab analyzes your vocal fold tension and switches on DAF/FAF when you tense your vocal folds, before you stutter. It switches off sound when you're speaking with relaxed vocal folds, or not talking (see Vocal Frequency Biofeedback.

Dynamic Expansion

Some devices have dynamic expansion. This makes loud sounds louder and quiet sounds quieter. If you're using a noise-canceling directional microphone this makes your voice louder and background sounds quieter. With an omnidirectional microphone it can make your voice quieter and background noise louder.

Acoustical Transparency

Listening to someone talk, while you wear a DAF device that's picking up the other person's voice, is like reading the following:

That says, "difficult to hear another person speaking." You hear the person speaking twice, with the words out of sync.

In contrast, small FAF pitch shifts, without a DAF delay, have little impact on your ability to hear. It's like hearing music played on a violin vs. on a viola. Or hearing your friend's voice drop a little when recovering from a cold. This is known as "acoustically transparent."

Finding Help Paying for an Anti-Stuttering Device

Many states, including Texas, California, Massachusetts, Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Arizona have special telephone equipment distribution programs that provide telephone-compatible anti-stuttering devices free to qualified residents.

If you're employed, ask your employer to help pay for an anti-stuttering device. All of my customers who've asked their employers received help. And then they were given extra work and responsibilities. Some also got raises.

If your employer were to say no, you could mention that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to pay for "reasonable accommodations" requested by employees with disabilities.

If you're unemployed and stutter, your state's vocational rehabilitation program will help get you a job, including paying for speech therapy and/or an anti-stuttering device. See the section Vocational Rehabilitation.

Some speech clinics will handle your insurance billing for anti-stuttering devices. The CPT/HCPCS procedure code for electronic anti-stuttering devices is E1399-NU. The diagnosis code for stuttering is 307.0.

I've had good experiences with Sertoma and Lions Clubs. Sertoma assists persons with speech, hearing, and language disorders. Service organizations prefer to help low-income children, and they prefer to be approached by the child's speech-language pathologist.

Next chapter: Auditory Processing

Back to Table of Contents


text:
Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Response Selection Under Stress

The chapter is divided into sections because it exceeds the 32K limit of some browsers.

 * Stuttering Reduces Stress

 * Speech-Related Fears and Anxieties

 * Personal Construct Therapy: You Always Have Choices

Next chapter: Genes and Neurotransmitters

Back to Table of Contents

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Childhood Stuttering/Pre-School Stuttering

Indirect Therapy
Indirect therapy is a "gentle nudge." Indirect therapy changes the parents' speech and behaviors. The speech-language pathologist trains the parents to slow down and use simple vocabulary, and not criticize the child, to not put pressure on the child (e.g., don't demand that the child confess guilt), to wait two seconds after the child finishes speaking before answering the child, and to give the child lots of hugs.

Indirect therapy is ineffective. A literature review found

"…little convincing evidence…that parents of children who stutter differ from parents of children who do not stutter in the way they talk with their children. Similarly, there is little objective support…that parents' speech behaviors contribute to children's stuttering or that modifying parents' speech behaviors facilitates children's fluency."

More than a dozen studies found no evidence that altering parental behavior changed children's speech. These studies found no differences for positive statements (praise, encouragement, agreement), negative statements (criticism, reprimands), questions, topic initiations and terminations; conversational assertiveness and responsiveness; response time latency or the time between one person finishing speaking, and the other person beginning speaking; "formal" style vs. a "casual" style; or illocution.

The studies I really liked found the opposite of what the "experts" have been telling parents for 75 years:

 A study found that mothers interrupt their child after dysfluencies, not before. This suggests that not interrupting causes children to stutter!

A study found that when mothers spoke faster their children spoke slower. Another study trained parents to slow their speaking rates. The children's speaking rate increased. This suggests that parents talking slowly causes their children to stutter!

Parents of children who stutter produced more positive statements (e.g., praise, encouragement) and fewer negative statements (e.g. criticisms, disparaging remarks) than parents of children who didn't stutter. This suggests that parents' praise and encouragement causes children to stutter!

A multiyear study followed 93 preschool children. At the start, none of the children stuttered. One year later, 26 of the children stuttered. The researchers compared the speech behaviors of the two groups of mothers, before their children started stuttering. No differences were found, except that mothers of children who would stutter had shorter, less complex utterances. This contradicts the "capacities and demands model" of childhood stuttering.

More generally, some psychologists now discount the role of parents in the development of children's character and personality. About 50% of the personality differences are attributable to our genes, and the rest due to the child's peers: "…what parents do seems to be nearly irrelevant."

Direct Therapy
In contrast, direct therapy changes the child's speech and behaviors. Direct therapy can be more of a big shove, rather than a gentle nudge. It may include:

 Games to encourage speaking. Games to train specific speech skills, similar to adult fluency shaping therapy.

Modeling the child's speech and/or behaviors.

A child's first therapy session may just be playing a game to encourage the child to talk. E.g., the speech-language pathologist and child silently play with separate boxes of trucks, on opposite sides of the room. The speech-language pathologist begins making engine sounds. She then gradually moves to the center of the room, and her trucks interact with the child's trucks.

"Say the Magic Word" is another game to encourage talking. You can play this while looking through a picture book, or while driving. The parent says she sees something. The child guesses what the parent sees. When the child says the "magic word," the parent rings a bell or gives the child a peanut. No particular word is magic—the child is rewarded for fluent words.

A frequency-shifted auditory feedback (FAF) device makes shy children want to talk. They're fascinated to hear their voices sounding like a "little kid" (frequency upshift) or a "monster" (frequency downshift).

Some games teach speech skills. In "Can't Catch Me," one person gets a peanut when the other person asks a question. You then quietly eat your peanut before answering the question. If you answer the question before eating your peanut, you must put your peanut back. The parent should lose more peanuts than the child, by answering too quickly. This reduces the time pressure the child feels about quickly answering questions.

A turtle hand puppet can teach slow speech with stretched vowels. When the child uses the target speech skills, the turtle slowly walks. When the child speaks fast, the turtle retreats into her shell.

Super Duper has other games for stuttering therapy.

Modeling
"Caitlyn, a four-year-old female who began to stutter in the midst of her parents' divorce, was exhibiting significant struggle and tension behavior as well as secondary behaviors. Of most concern was her head-banging behavior during difficult moments of stuttering. After many sessions in which I attempted to eliminate this behavior through fluency-shaping principles, I saw no change. One day, shortly after Caitlyn banged her forehead on the table to interrupt a block, I modeled the same behavior. Caitlyn was shocked and ignored me. After I did this several times she asked me, "Why did you do that? Didn't that hurt?" I responded, "I don't know why I did it. But it sure didn't help me get my word out!" Caitlyn never again banged her head to help her talk. She has been out of therapy for six years and remains fluent."

This speech-language pathologist's modeling of Caitlyn's behavior was radically different from conventional stuttering therapy practices. The speech-language pathologist improved the child's awareness of her stuttering. In contrast, most "experts" would have pretended not to notice Caitlyn's head-banging behavior. They would have predicted that making Caitlyn aware of her head-banging would have caused emotional trauma and made her stuttering worse.

Imagine that a teenage brother and sister use profanity at the family dinner table. Should the parents act horrified and tell their children never to use such language? Should they refuse to allow dessert or television for the teenagers?

You know that won't work. The teenagers will use profanity at the next opportunity, just for the amusement of horrifying their parents. Instead, the parents should immediately use twice as much profanity. Dad should say, "#$%^, this is best *&^% meatloaf in the whole @#$% world!"

Mom should then respond, "Oh, you big !@#$, you're so &^%$ cool and #$%^ sexy and when you talk ^%$#!"

The teenagers will turn red with embarrassment, and never use profanity again in front of their parents!

''In a psychology class about traumatized children we saw a video of a ten-year-old boy destroying a psychologist's office. The boy threw every object he could throw, and smashed everything else. The psychologist sat there calmly telling the boy not to destroy the office. He finally grabbed the boy and hugged him. To me it looked like a full body restraint but the instructor said it was a hug, and that was what the boy really needed. I asked what would have happened if the psychologist had modeled the boy's behavior. E.g., the psychologist could have thrown and smashed stuff. The instructor said that was the worst idea she'd ever heard. But I think the boy would have stopped, watched in amazement as the psychologist destroyed his own office, and then asked, "Why did you do that?" The boy and the psychologist could then have started talking, with understanding of what the boy was feeling, which is what I think the boy needed.''--Thomas David Kehoe 02:06, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

The purpose of modeling is to improve the subject's awareness of his or her behaviors. Stutterers are largely unaware of their stuttering, or at least what they do when they stutter. Everyone else can see the stuttering but the stutterer can't. Combining video and modeling can help a stutterer improve self-awareness.

Modeling also dispels a person's mistaken view that a behavior is invisible, or it's acceptable, or everyone does it. If everyone ignores undesirable behavior then the person may think it's OK.

Modeling only works when the modeler or the modelee knows how to replace the undesirable behavior with a target behavior. E.g., it's OK for your speech-language pathologist to model your stuttering because she can show you how to speak fluently. It was OK for my Romantic Disaster of 1996 to make me aware that I was stuttering, because I knew what to do to talk fluently. It's not OK to point out a problem to someone who has no idea what to do about it.


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Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Speech Motor Learning and Control/Biofeedback

Feedback and Biofeedback

The associative stage of motor learning requires feedback. In sports this is called knowledge of results. E.g., in golf or tennis you see where the ball goes after you hit it. Playing golf or tennis on a dark, foggy night would be impossible.

Feedback quality is affected by speed. If you hit ten golf balls on a dark, foggy night, then the next day find one of the balls 150 yards away, you'll have no memory of what you did right to hit it so far.

Feedback quality is also affected by accuracy. If you and your buddy each hit a golf ball, and one ball goes 150 yards but you don't know whose ball it was, you have inaccurate feedback.

Or the observer gets bored. If you hit golf balls for hours, and have a person telling you how far the balls go, sooner or later the person will stop paying attention.

Fluency Skills Feedback

When you're learning fluent speech motor skills, you need knowledge of results. Some skills are easy to observe the results of. E.g., resting your hand on your stomach tells you whether you're using diaphragmatic (relaxed) breathing or thoracic (speech) breathing.

Your articulators (lips, jaw, and tongue) are a little harder to be aware of, as you can't see them. But you have good proprioceptive awareness of these muscles, so developing awareness and control isn't hard.

Your vocal folds are another story. These muscles are deep in your throat. You can't touch them or see them. Most people don't even know they have vocal folds.

The most difficult feedback is with the timing of all this. E.g., your speech-language pathologist tells you to exhale a little air and then increase your vocal fold tension. You do this slowly and correctly. Then she tells you to increase the speed. You must execute these movements within hundredths of a second. You can't tell whether you're doing it right, and most speech-language pathologists can't either.

A fluency specialist who's helped hundreds of stutterers has better-trained ear and visual skills and gives better quality of feedback than a speech-language pathologist who's never treated a stutterer.

Biofeedback Devices

In the last chapter I discussed anti-stuttering devices that treat the auditory processing underactivity associated with stuttering. Now I'll discuss stuttering therapy devices that use biofeedback to treat the speech motor control overactivity associated with stuttering.  *

Biofeedback is the measurement and display (to the user) of a physiological activity, to enable the user to improve awareness and control of the activity.

Biofeedback machines provides faster, more precise, and more reliable feedback than a human observer. Machines can provide feedback in real-time, beeping the instant you make a mistake. Machines can accurately measure things humans can't see or hear. And machines never get bored, even after hours of practice.

But biofeedback devices aren't a "miracle cure" for stuttering. Stuttering therapy works on many motor skills, so you might need several devices. Another problem is that certain motor activities are difficult to monitor, especially the vocal folds.

CAFET and Dr. Fluency

The Computer-Aided Fluency Establishment and Trainer(CAFET) and Dr. Fluency are computer-based stuttering biofeedback systems. Both use a microphone to monitor vocal volume, as a surrogate for vocal fold activity, and a chest strap to monitor breathing. Dr. Fluency uses two chest straps, to differentiate diaphragmatic (relaxed) breathing from thoracic (upper chest) breathing.

You see your breathing and your vocal volume displayed on the computer screen, along with instructions or error messages.

The computer systems train similar speech motor skills:

 Relaxed, diaphragmatic breathing. Continuous breathing. The computer alerts you if you hold your breath more than 1/3 of a second. Gradual exhalation, as opposed to the rapid, uncontrolled exhalation associated with stuttering.

Pre-voice exhalation, or letting a little air out before you begin tensing your vocal folds.

Gentle onset, or gradually increase vocal volume. The computer alerts you if your vocal volume changes too rapidly. The computer also alerts you if your voice is too quiet for your air flow (which sounds breathy).

Continuous phonation. Breaks in vocal volume are shown on the computer monitor.

Adequate breath support. The computer alerts you if you continue to talk after the point at which you should take another breath. Stutterers too often try to finish a phrase with insufficient air in their lungs.

Phrasing. Each of the above seven speech targets is taught first with vowels, then progressing to monosyllabic words, then to marked-length phrases. Stutterers too often pause to breathe at feared words or when they run out of air, rather than pausing to breathe at linguistically-appropriate points.

The CAFET and Dr. Fluency provide the following advantage over non-instrument-based stuttering therapy:

The computer provides instant, accurate information on what you are doing right or wrong.

The computers are always paying attention, and never get tired of helping you practice.

The computers provide step-by-step instructions. Dr. Fluency has animated graphics showing what your speech muscles should do for each exercise.

With the computer training the physical speech motor skills, the speech pathologist can spend more time on the psychological aspects of stuttering.

If you learn visually rather than aurally, you may learn faster with the computer displays than by listening to your speech on a tape recorder.

Dr. Fluency is designed for home practice use as well as clinical use. According to motor learning theory, practicing one hour per day is optimal. Practicing more hours per day or fewer days per week produces poorer results in the long run.

An unpublished study of the CAFET program with 197 adults and teenagers reported that 82% met fluency criteria six months after completing the program; 89% were fluent after twelve months; and 92% were fluent two years post-therapy. These results are impressive, but unpublished studies are questionable.

Electromyography (EMG)

EMG measures muscle activity via electrodes taped to your skin. Several studies found EMG to be effective for treating stuttering. These include the large study that found computers to be more effective than speech-language pathologists.

My biggest fluency breakthrough was with EMG biofeedback. I brought my company's first EMG/DAF/FAF device to a speech-language pathology convention. For four days, eight hours a day, I showed hundreds of speech-language pathologists how the devices worked. I showed how tensing my vocal folds caused red lights and DAF/FAF to switch on, and relaxing my vocal folds made green lights go on and DAF/FAF to switch off. For a week after the convention I couldn't stutter. Eventually my stuttering returned, but daily use of the device on telephone calls kept my stuttering under control.

But EMG biofeedback isn't a "miracle cure." Surface electrodes poorly monitor vocal fold activity (the primary symptom of stuttering), because vocal folds are deep in the neck, surrounded by other muscles. EMG devices are costly and difficult to set up. And even at the convention I heard speech-language pathologists laughing behind my back at the strange apparatus, with electrodes taped to my face and wires everywhere.

Vocal Frequency Biofeedback

The great problem in stuttering therapy biofeedback is how to monitor vocal fold activity. EMG surface electrodes can't do this. The CAFET and Dr. Fluency monitor vocal fold activity indirectly via vocal volume. These devices assume is that a quiet voice means relaxed vocal folds, and loud voice means tense vocal folds. That isn't always true.

A better method is to monitor the frequencies of the stutterer's voice. Relaxed vocal folds generally produce a deep-pitched voice; tense vocal folds generally produce a high-pitched voice. The user simply speaks into a microphone; no electrodes are needed.

Vocal frequency biofeedback is also available in Kay Elemetrics' Visi-Pitch device, and in my company's Pocket Speech Lab. I've found that no one—stutterers or speech-language pathologists—can control the red and green lights when they first try the device. But after about ten minutes of training a light bulb goes on in their heads and they can easily control their vocal fold tension and vocal pitch, and make the light turn red or green at will. This suggests to me that no stuttering therapy programs train how to relax one's vocal folds. Many stuttering therapy programs claim to do this but I don't see the results. I suspect that "gentle onsets" are not the best way to train stutterers to speak with relaxed vocal folds.

 * Next chapter: Automatic, Effortless Fluency

 * Back to Table of Contents


text:
Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Response Selection Under Stress/Speech-Related Fears and Anxieties

Introducing yourself to an attractive person. Raising your hand to answer a teacher's question. Ordering in a restaurant. Calling a store to ask if they have what you want. Making a toast at your best friend's wedding reception. Calling to order a pizza. Leaving a voicemail.

Do any of these make you nervous? Any that you never, ever do? Everyone is nervous about some speaking situations. Public speaking is humanity's most common fear, greater than the fear of death. Few women will introduce themselves to a man to ask for a date, or call a man who's given his telephone number and asked for a date. Ordering in a French restaurant is scarier than ordering at McDonald's.

The Predator Approach

Rent the video Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. Settle down with a bowl of popcorn to watch the governor of California and the governor of Minnesota discuss school funding and property tax reform. Just joking. Back in 1987, Schwarzenegger and Ventura were action movie heroes. In Predator the men shoot a variety of large weapons, including an M-134 7.62mm minigun and an M-79 grenade launcher.

Now write down a list of speaking tasks that you don't do, that non-stutterers don't think twice about doing. Let's say that you're afraid to leave voicemails on answering machines. Write down all the speech therapy tools you can use in this situation. Imagine yourself as Schwarzenegger and Ventura making a list of weapons to bring. But instead of arming yourself with a minigun and a grenade launcher, your weapons for voicemail could include:

 Practicing your message before you call. Fluency skills, such as slow speech with stretched vowels, relaxing your breathing, or relaxing your vocal folds. Using a DAF/FAF anti-stuttering device. A hierarchy of stress, beginning with calling your own answering machine, then calling your speech-language pathologist's answering machine, then calling a friend's answering machine, then calling a business's answering machine (e.g., calling restaurants before they open asking if they have banquet facilities), and finally calling that attractive person of the opposite sex.

Don't stop listing your arsenal until you look at the list and laugh at how you'll blow away that poor little voicemail. Then think of one more weapon to add to your list. You're ready when you're confident that you won't stutter.

Let's say that your message is, "You're the most wonderful person I've ever met. I can't wait to see you again." Using all of your fluency weapons, pick up the phone and call your own answering machine. Check your messages. Pretty good, huh?

Now call yourself again. This time, reduce or throw away one of your weapons. If you used one-second stretched syllables on the first call, call yourself using half-second stretch. Then go to quarter-second "slow normal" speech.

If you used an anti-stuttering device on the first call, don't use the device for your next call.

If you practiced the message on the first call, say something spontaneous on your next call.

Step by step, throw away your weapons, until you can call your own voicemail fluently, without effort or fear.

OK, if you're a non-violent person, think of this as a multifactoral approach to stuttering therapy. Instead of relying on one fluency skill, take one item from the auditory processing category, e.g., an anti-stuttering device; one item from the speech motor control category, e.g., relaxed vocal folds; one item from the stress control category, e.g., using a hierarchy of stress; one item from the neurotransmitters category, e.g., medication, etc. Don't select all your fluency skills from one category, e.g., gentle onsets, diaphragmatic breathing, relaxed vocal folds, etc.

Make a Stress Hierarchy

Now take a step up the stress hierarchy. Call your speech-language pathologist and leave a message. (If you're not in speech therapy, call a friend or relative.) Begin with your full arsenal of fluency weapons, then call back, using fewer fluency weapons. Then work your way up your stress hierarchy. If you feel any twinge of fear on a call, take a step back until you feel confident again.

Approaching feared speaking situations can be like fighting a grizzly bear armed only with a pocket knife. Scary speaking situations combine to look like a ten-foot-tall bear. Most speech therapy programs give you only one weapon.

Divide your general fear of speaking into specific fears. The giant bear becomes many small bears. Now create a stress hierarchy, with a small bear on one end, and a bunny rabbit on the other end. And instead of having one weapon, which your speech-language pathologist (or the expert who trained her back at the university) assured you was the One True treatment for stuttering, you now have a variety of fluency skills.

You're armed like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you're hunting bunny rabbits, and you're in a pet shop before Easter. Armed to the teeth with speech therapy skills, there's no possibility of stuttering in your feared situation. Heck, it isn't even a feared situation anymore!

You now see why this chapter follows the auditory processing chapter and the speech motor learning and control chapter. The previous chapters gave you many weapons for your fluency arsenal. Now that you have many fluency skills you have no reason to fear speaking situations. Work your way down your list of feared speaking situations until you have no more speech-related fears and anxieties than an average non-stutterer.

Further Reducing Fears and Anxieties

When you run out speech-related fears and anxieties that non-stutterers aren't scared of, make a list of speaking situations that scare non-stutterers. Remember when I said that your speech can be better than non-stutterers? When you're ready, move on to these areas:

 Walk up to strangers at parties. If you're single, pick attractive persons of the opposite sex. Say that your speech therapist wants you to talk to strangers and ask if you can talk to this person. If you have an anti-stuttering device, ask if it's OK to use it. No one is going to say no. I met one of my ex-girlfriends this way. Join Toastmasters International to learn public speaking skills. Sign up for a beginning acting class at a university or community theater. Acting classes are the most fun you've had since sixth grade.

Put together some funny stories and sign up to do stand-up comedy on amateur night at a nightclub.

Sign up for voice lessons. Amaze people by singing at social occasions.

Learn a foreign language. Talk to cab drivers in their native language.

Stress Is the Absence of Choices

We experience stress when our plans are thwarted. We try to reach a goal, and some little thing stops us. For stutterers, that little thing often is an inability to communicate.

E.g., you go to a fast-food restaurant to buy a cheeseburger. You can see the cheeseburgers behind the counter. You can smell the cheeseburgers. You even have correct change in your hand. All you have to do is say, "Cheeseburger"—but stuttering stops you.

Instead of thinking of stress as thwarted plans, think about your choices. You could point at the cheeseburgers. You could write "cheeseburger" on a note. You always have choices.

If you focus only on reaching your goal, you miss opportunities that may be better than your goal. E.g., you miss the salmon pesto salad the restaurant just added to the menu.

Or you pantomime "cheeseburger" as if you were playing charades. You feel ridiculous, and people in the line laugh at you. Then a movie producer offers you a million dollars to star in his new "stupid and stupider" movie.

OK, that's unlikely. Just realize that you always have choices. As you imagine your choices, you'll feel your stress going away. Your insurmountable problem now looks like a variety of choices (see the section Personal Construct Therapy.

Use a Partner to Center Your Emotions

When you feel stressed, find a partner who expresses the opposite emotion.

E.g., if you're fired from your job. You come home feeling like a failure and you'll never succeed. You don't want a partner who agrees with you.

Instead, you want a partner who'll tell you that you're smart and hardworking, and you'll soon find a better job.

Picture your emotions like a car with a manual transmission. To shift from one gear to another gear, you have to shift through neutral gear. Similarly, to shift from feeling stressed to another emotion, first seek your emotional center.

Reduce Your Child's Stress

No studies have tested whether reducing stress affects children's stuttering. But you can try and observe whether this helps your child's speech.

Don't demand that your child confess guilt (fear of punishment). When your child experiences overwhelming emotions, e.g., is afraid to do something, don't demand that your child explain why he or she feels overwhelmed. Emotions are in a deeper, older brain area. Language is a higher, new brain function. An emotionally overwhelmed child may be unable to speak.

Don't insist that your child talk in an unfamiliar situation, e.g., at a new day care center (uncertain what to say, fear of embarrassment, uncertainty of status with new children). Situations that feel comfortable to you may be stressful to your child. Try to see stress from your child's point of view.

Reduce Your Listener's Stress

Stuttering is a rare disorder. Many people have never met a stutterer. I've had listeners ask if I was having a medical emergency, or ask if I was cold (apparently I looked like I was shivering). I have no doubt that other listeners thought that I was mentally retarded or psychotic, perhaps dangerous. Reduce their fears by saying that you stutter.

Some listeners think that they did something to make you stutter. Other listeners wish there were something they could do to help you. Tell them that you stutter. If they have any questions about stuttering, they'll ask you.

Make a joke about stuttering. Or you could put stuttering on your business card, perhaps describing you as chapter leader of your local stuttering support group.

Better, tell listeners that you're using speech therapy skills. Ask if your fluency skills sound weird, then do what your speech-language pathologist wants you to do (e.g., breathe with your diaphragm, relax your vocal folds, slow down your speaking rate). Ask if your stuttering therapy speech sounds better than your stuttering.

Ask the listener to remind you when you miss a speech motor control target. You could ask listeners to remind you when you stutter, but they'll be uncomfortable doing this, and you'll feel embarrassed if you don't have good control over your stuttering. Instead, ask listeners to remind you when you miss targets, e.g., you talk too fast. You should have better control over that.

If you're doing speech therapy, tell listeners you'll pay $1 for each missed target they point out (see my Romantic Disaster of 1996).

Lastly, if you use an anti-stuttering device, show it to your listener and ask if she minds if you use it. This is perhaps the best way to tell listeners that you stutter. Listeners invariably ask questions about the devices. In contrast, listeners rarely ask questions about speech therapy, e.g., vocal fold relaxation isn't of great interest to the general population. But everyone wants to know how anti-stuttering devices work. Suggest that the listener try on the device, and adjust it to make the listener stutter (by maximizing the delay, or moving the pitch shift up and down). When I do this, other people come over to see what's making their friend trip over his or her words. They give me positive feedback about my stuttering, laugh at their own failure to talk, and experience for a few minutes what it feels like to stutter.

Alternative Ways to Reduce Stress

If stuttering is the only way you know to reduce stress, you'll always stutter in stressful situations. Instead, learn alternative ways to reduce stress. Take a stress reduction class. Read books about handling stress.

One of the best ways to reduce stress is to relax your breathing. Stress reduction classes teach this. Or take a meditation or yoga class. Relaxed breathing not only reduces stress, it helps stutterers talk fluently.

Look for Stuttering-Reducers

Imagine a stutterer reading a projected PowerPoint presentation aloud to an audience. He scans the slides for feared words. Sure enough, there's a p-word. And an s-word! He scans the prodigious thesaurus in his brain, looking for words he can substitute. But the audience is reading the slides projected on the screen. Will they think he's illiterate if he substitutes or skips words? But what if he blocks and the audience discovers that he stutters! What can he do?

He's looking for stuttering-increasers. I.e., he's looking for ways to stutter. And, sure enough, stuttering-increasers—difficult sounds, feared words, judgmental listeners—abound, if you know where to find them.

Imagine another stutterer, also reading aloud to an audience. Instead of looking for stuttering-increasers, she looks for stuttering-reducers:

With her text prepared for her, she can focus on using her speech therapy skills instead of thinking about what she's saying.

She can pretend to be a robot reading machine. The robot has no emotions, it just sees words, moves its mouth, and words come out.

She can wear an anti-stuttering device and the audience will think it's a microphone for the PA system.

When she introduces herself she can say that she stutters. Audiences love presentations that start with a joke, so she could start with a joke about her stuttering.

You'll recognize this as a variation of the Predator approach.

Increasing or Decreasing Stress in Therapy

Stuttering therapy typically begins with a stutterer learning closed-loop speech motor control in a low-stress environment, e.g., chatting with the speech-language pathologist, or alone practicing word lists.

The stutterer gradually moves from closed-loop speech motor control to open-loop speech motor control. When he achieves fluent open-loop speech motor control, the speech-language pathologist takes him to a shopping mall for "transfer" practice. Then they're finished with speech therapy and he's on his own.

The result is fluent open-loop speech in low-stress environments, and relapse to open-loop stuttering in high-stress environments. The relapse shake the stutterer's self-confidence. Or the stress de-myelinates (weakens) fluent speech motor programs. A single high-stress, dysfluent experience might destroy weeks of low-stress practice.

Or both. The stutterer then gets into a vicious cycle of stress and relapse leading to more stress and more relapse.

A better plan would be to train a stutterer to recognize stressful situations, and consciously switch to closed-loop speech motor control (i.e., very slow speech) in high-stress environments. When he feels his stress diminishing he can switch to open-loop speech motor control (i.e., normal-sounding speech).

For example, I used to meet strangers and say, "My speech-language pathologist wants me to talk to strangers. May I talk to you?" I would then use very slow closed-loop speech motor control. After we had a friendly conversation going and my fears and anxieties diminished, I'd use the "slow-normal" speaking rate that mixes open- and closed-loop speech motor control.

In other words, with traditional therapy the stutterer switches between stuttering and fluent speech, as situations change between high-stress and low-stress. Instead, I switched between closed-loop and open-loop speech motor control, as stress changed. The result was that I constantly myelinated (strengthened) the fluent speech motor programs in my brain. Most important, I strengthened my brain's connection between stressful situations and closed-loop speech motor control. Switching to closed-loop speech motor control in a stressful situation should be as habitual as remembering to count to ten before punching someone.

You might object that severe stutterers may be unable to produce even two-second stretch closed-loop speech motor control in stressful situations. I.e., their fluent speech completely breaks down under stress. So use the Predator approach.

Or you might object that closed-loop speech motor control sounds "weird," and stressful situations are where you most want to sound normal. When I said to strangers, "My speech-language pathologist wants me to talk to strangers…#133;" no one ever refused. Most people then asked me questions about stuttering therapy. As long as the stutterer tells listeners that he is using special "speech therapy speech," sounding "weird" isn't an issue.

References

 * 1) Nippold, M., Rudzinski, M. "Parents' Speech and Children's Stuttering: A Critique of the Literature," Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38:5, October 1995.

 * Next section: Personal Construct Therapy: You Always Have Choices

 * Back to Table of Contents


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User:T.L. Chan~enwikibooks

I am a student attending the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, and I plan to be a mathematics major after I graduate from TAMS. I was born in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. when I was 11 years old.

Interests

 * Mathematics
 * Poetry
 * Calligraphy
 * Education
 * Coffee
 * Sleep

History

 * Born in Hong Kong in 1988
 * Moved to the United States in 1999
 * Accepted into TAMS in 2003
 * Joined Wikipedia on Dec. 28, 2005.
 * Joined Wikibooks on Dec. 28, 2005.

title: User:T.L. Chan~enwikibooks


text:
Talk:Do-It-Yourself/Shoe polish

how to make shoe polish out of charcoal?? is is expensive?? but weel, for some information, we wil use some informations from this web for our investigatory project.. thank you?

title: Talk:Do-It-Yourself/Shoe polish


text:
Talk:Arabic/Basic Sentences

Untitled
This section's presentation of when the "L" sound in the definite article is pronounced or unpronounced skips over the reason that the L in ar-rajul is left out. It's in words that begin with the "sun letters" S, D, T, etc, that you don't pronounce the Lam. The sun letters are those which involve the tip of the tongue touching the teeth. But maybe that's too much detail for this first lesson?

title: Talk:Arabic/Basic Sentences


text:
Special Relativity/Principle of Relativity

The principle of relativity
Principles of relativity address the relationship between observations made at different places. This problem has been a difficult theoretical challenge since the earliest times and involves physical questions such as how the velocities of objects can be combined and how influences are transmitted between moving objects.

One of the most fruitful approaches to this problem was the investigation of how observations are affected by the velocity of the observer. This problem had been tackled by classical philosophers but it was the work of Galileo that produced a real breakthrough. Galileo (1632), in his Dialogues Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, considered observations of motion made by people inside a ship who could not see the outside:

 * "have the ship proceed with any speed you like, so long as the motion is uniform and not fluctuating this way and that. You will discover not the least change in all the effects named, nor could you tell from any of them whether the ship was moving or standing still. "

According to Galileo, if the ship moved smoothly then someone inside it would be unable to determine whether they were moving. If people in Galileo's moving ship were eating dinner they would see their peas fall from their fork straight down to their plate in the same way as they might if they were at home on dry land. The peas move along with the people and do not appear to the diners to fall diagonally. This means that the peas continue in a state of uniform motion unless someone intercepts them or otherwise acts on them. It also means that simple experiments that the people on the ship might perform would give the same results on the ship or at home. This concept led to “Galilean Relativity” in which it was held that things continue in a state of motion unless acted upon and that the laws of physics are independent of the velocity of the laboratory.

This simple idea challenged the previous ideas of Aristotle. Aristotle had argued in his Physics that objects must either be moved or be at rest. According to Aristotle, on the basis of complex and interesting arguments about the possibility of a 'void', objects cannot remain in a state of motion without something moving them. As a result Aristotle proposed that objects would stop entirely in empty space. If Aristotle were right the peas that you dropped whilst dining aboard a moving ship would fall in your lap rather than falling straight down on to your plate. Aristotle's idea had been believed by everyone so Galileo's new proposal was extraordinary and, because it was nearly right, became the foundation of physics.

Galilean Relativity contains two important principles: firstly it is impossible to determine who is actually at rest and secondly things continue in uniform motion unless acted upon. The second principle is known as Galileo’s Law of Inertia or Newton's First Law of Motion.

Special relativity
Until the nineteenth century it appeared that Galilean relativity treated all observers as equivalent no matter how fast they were moving. If you throw a ball straight up in the air at the North Pole it falls straight back down again and this also happens at the equator even though the equator is moving at almost a thousand miles an hour faster than the pole. Galilean velocities are additive so that the ball continues moving at a thousand miles an hour when it is thrown upwards at the equator and continues with this motion until it is acted on by an external agency. This simple scheme became questioned in 1865 when James Clerk Maxwell discovered the equations that describe the propagation of electromagnetic waves such as light. His equations showed that the speed of light depended upon constants that were thought to be simple properties of a physical medium or “aether” that pervaded all space. If this were the case then, according to Galilean relativity, it should be possible to add your own velocity to the velocity of incoming light so that if you were travelling at a half the speed of light then any light approaching you would be observed to be travelling at 1.5 times the speed of light in the aether. Similarly, any light approaching you from behind would strike you at 0.5 times the speed of light in the aether. Light itself would always go at the same speed in the aether so if you shone a light from a torch whilst travelling at high speed the light would plop into the aether and slow right down to its normal speed. This would spoil Galileo's Relativity because all you would need to do to discover whether you were in a moving ship or on dry land would be to measure the speed of light in different directions. The light would go slower in your direction of travel through the aether and faster in the opposite direction.

If the Maxwell equations are valid and the simple classical addition of velocities applies then there should be a preferred reference frame, the frame of the stationary aether. The preferred reference frame would be considered the true zero point to which all velocity measurements could be referred. Special relativity restored a principle of relativity in physics by maintaining that Maxwell's equations are correct but that classical velocity addition is wrong: there is no preferred reference frame. Special relativity brought back the interpretation that in all inertial reference frames the same physics is going on and there is no phenomenon that would allow an observer to pinpoint a zero point of velocity. Einstein preserved the principle of relativity by proposing that the laws of physics are the same regardless of the velocity of the observer. According to Einstein, whether you are in the hold of Galileo's ship or in the cargo bay of a space ship going at a large fraction of the speed of light the laws of physics will be the same.

Einstein's idea shared the same philosophy as Galileo's idea, both men believed that the laws of physics would be unaffected by motion at a constant velocity. In the years between Galileo and Einstein it was believed that it was the way velocities simply add to each other that preserved the laws of physics but Einstein adapted this simple concept to allow for Maxwell's equations.

Frames of reference, events and transformations
Before proceeding further with the analysis of relative motion the concepts of reference frames, events and transformations need to be defined more closely.

Physical observers are considered to be surrounded by a reference frame which is a set of coordinate axes in terms of which position or movement may be specified or with reference to which physical laws may be mathematically stated.

An event is something that happens independently of the reference frame that might be used to describe it. Turning on a light or the collision of two objects would constitute an event.

Suppose there is a small event, such as a light being turned on, that is at coordinates $$x,y,z,t$$ in one reference frame. What coordinates would another observer, in another reference frame moving relative to the first at velocity $$v$$ along the $$x$$ axis assign to the event? This problem is illustrated below:

What we are seeking is the relationship between the second observer's coordinates for the event $$x^{'}, y^{'}, z^{'}, t^{'}$$ and the first observer's coordinates for the event $$x,y,z,t$$. The coordinates refer to the positions and timings of the event that are measured by each observer and, for simplicity, the observers are arranged so that they are coincident at $$t=0$$. According to Galilean Relativity:

 * $$x^'$$ $$= x - vt$$

 * $$y^'$$ = $$y $$

 * $$z^'$$ = $$z $$

 * $$t^'$$ = $$t $$

This set of equations is known as a Galilean coordinate transformation or Galilean transformation.

These equations show how the position of an event in one reference frame is related to the position of an event in another reference frame. But what happens if the event is something that is moving? How do velocities transform from one frame to another?

The calculation of velocities depends on Newton's formula: $$v = dx/dt$$. The use of Newtonian physics to calculate velocities and other physical variables has led to Galilean Relativity being called Newtonian Relativity in the case where conclusions are drawn beyond simple changes in coordinates. The velocity transformations for the velocities in the three directions in space are, according to Galilean relativity:

 * $$\mathbf{u^'_x = u_x - v}$$

 * $$\mathbf{u^'_y = u_y}$$

 * $$\mathbf{u^'_z = u_z}$$

where $$\mathbf{u^'_x, u^'_y, u^'_z}$$ are the velocities of a moving object in the three directions in space recorded by the second observer and $$\mathbf{u_x, u_y, u_z}$$ are the velocities recorded by the first observer and $$\mathbf{v}$$ is the relative velocity of the observers. The minus sign in front of the $$\mathbf{v}$$ means the moving object is moving away from both observers.

This result is known as the classical velocity addition theorem and summarises the transformation of velocities between two Galilean frames of reference. It means that the velocities of projectiles must be determined relative to the velocity of the source and destination of the projectile. For example, if a sailor throws a stone at 10 km/hr from Galileo's ship which is moving towards shore at 5 km/hr then the stone will be moving at 15 km/hr when it hits the shore.

In Newtonian Relativity the geometry of space is assumed to be Euclidean and the measurement of time is assumed to be the same for all observers. The derivation of the classical velocity addition theorem is as follows. If the Galilean transformations are differentiated with respect to time:
 * $$x^' = x - vt$$

So:
 * $$dx^'/dt = dx/dt - v$$

But in Galilean relativity, $$t^' = t$$ and so $$dx^'/dt^' = dx^'/dt$$ therefore:
 * $$dx^'/dt^' = dx/dt - v$$
 * $$dy^'/dt^' = dy/dt$$
 * $$dz^'/dt^' = dz/dt$$

If we write $$u^'_x = dx^'/dt^'$$ etc. then:
 * $$u^'_x = u_x - v$$
 * $$u^'_y = u_y $$
 * $$u^'_z = u_z $$

The postulates of special relativity
The previous section described transformations from one frame of reference to another, using the simple addition of velocities that was introduced in Galileo's time. These transformations are consistent with Galileo's main postulate, which was that the laws of physics would be the same for all inertial observers, so that no-one could tell who was at rest. Aether theories had threatened Galileo's postulate, because the aether would be at rest and observers could determine that they were at rest simply by measuring the speed of light in the direction of motion. Einstein preserved Galileo's fundamental postulate, that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference. But to do so, he had to introduce a new postulate, that the speed of light would be the same for all observers. These postulates are listed below:

1. First postulate: the principle of relativity

Formally: the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference.

Informally: every physical theory should look the same mathematically to every inertial observer. Experiments in a physics laboratory in a spaceship or planet orbiting the sun and galaxy will give the same results, no matter how fast the laboratory is moving.

2. Second postulate: the invariance of the speed of light

Formally: the speed of light in free space is a constant in all inertial frames of reference.

Informally: the speed of light in a vacuum, commonly denoted c, is the same for all inertial observers; is the same in all directions; and does not depend on the velocity of the object emitting the light.

Using these postulates, Einstein was able to calculate how the observation of events depends upon the relative velocity of observers. He was then able to construct a theory of physics that led to predictions such as the equivalence of mass and energy and early quantum theory.

Einstein's formulation of the axioms of relativity is known as the electrodynamic approach to relativity. It has been superseded in most advanced textbooks by the space-time approach, in which the laws of physics themselves are due to symmetries in space-time and the constancy of the speed of light is a natural consequence of the existence of space-time. However, Einstein's approach is equally valid and represents a tour de force of deductive reasoning; one that provided the insights required for the modern treatment of the subject.

Einstein's Relativity - the electrodynamic approach
Einstein asked how the lengths and times that are measured by the observers might need to vary if both observers found that the speed of light was constant. He looked at the formulae for the velocity of light that would be used by the two observers, $$(x = ct)$$ and $$(x^' = ct^')$$, and asked what constants would need to be introduced to keep the measurement of the speed of light at the same value even though the relative motion of the observers meant that the $$x^'$$ axis was continually advancing. His working is shown in detail in the appendix. The result of this calculation is the Lorentz Transformation Equations:

 * $$x' = \gamma (x - vt)\,$$
 * $$y' = y \,$$
 * $$z' = z \,$$
 * $$t' = \gamma (t - \frac{v x}{c^{2}})\, $$

Where the constant $$ \gamma = \frac {1}{\sqrt {1 -\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$$. These equations apply to any two observers in relative motion but note that the sign within the brackets changes according to the direction of the velocity - see the appendix.

The Lorentz Transformation is the equivalent of the Galilean Transformation with the added assumption that everyone measures the same velocity for the speed of light no matter how fast they are travelling. The speed of light is a ratio of distance to time (ie: metres per second) so for everyone to measure the same value for the speed of light the length of measuring rods, the length of space between light sources and receivers and the number of ticks of clocks must dynamically differ between the observers. So long as lengths and time intervals vary with the relative velocity of two observers (v) as described by the Lorentz Transformation the observers can both calculate the speed of light as the ratio of the distance travelled by a light ray divided by the time taken to travel this distance and get the same value.

Einstein's approach is "electrodynamic" because it assumes, on the basis of Maxwell's equations, that light travels at a constant velocity. As mentioned above, the idea of a universal constant velocity is strange because velocity is a ratio of distance to time. Do the Lorentz Transformation Equations hide a deeper truth about space and time? Einstein himself gives one of the clearest descriptions of how the Lorentz Transformation equations are actually describing properties of space and time itself. His general reasoning is given below.

If the equations are combined they satisfy the relation:

(1) $$x^{'2} - c^2t^{'2} = x^2 - c^2t^2 \,$$

Einstein (1920) describes how this can be extended to describe movement in any direction in space:

(2) $$x^{'2} + y^{'2} + z^{'2} - c^2t^{'2} = x^2 + y^2 + z^2 - c^2t^2 \,$$

Equation (2) is a geometrical postulate about the relationship between lengths and times in the universe. It suggests that there is a constant s such that:

 * $$s^2 = x^{'2} + y^{'2} + z^{'2} - c^2t^{'2} \,$$
 * $$s^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^2 - c^2t^2 \,$$

This equation was recognised by Minkowski as an extension of Pythagoras' Theorem (ie: $$s^2 = x^2 + y^2$$), such extensions being well known in early twentieth century mathematics. What the Lorentz Transformation is telling us is that the universe is a four dimensional spacetime and as a result there is no need for any "aether". (See Einstein 1920, appendices, for Einstein's discussion of how the Lorentz Transformation suggests a four dimensional universe but be cautioned that "imaginary time" has now been replaced by the use of "metric tensors").

Einstein's analysis shows that the x-axis and time axis of two observers in relative motion do not overlie each other, The equation relating one observer's time to the other observer's time shows that this relationship changes with distance along the x-axis ie:

 * $$t' = \gamma (t - \frac{v x}{c^{2}})\, $$

This means that the whole idea of "frames of reference" needs to be re-visited to allow for the way that axes no longer overlie each other.

Inertial reference frames
The Lorentz Transformation for time involves a component $$(vx/c^2)$$ which results in time measurements being different along the x-axis of relatively moving observers. This means that the old idea of a frame of reference that simply involves three space dimensions with a time that is in common between all of the observers no longer applies. To compare measurements between observers the concept of a "reference frame" must be extended to include the observer's clocks.

An inertial reference frame is a conceptual, three-dimensional latticework of measuring rods set at right angles to each other with clocks at every point that are synchronised with each other (see below for a full definition). An object that is part of, or attached to, an inertial frame of reference is defined as an object which does not disturb the synchronisation of the clocks and remains at a constant spatial position within the reference frame. The inertial frame of reference that has a moving, non-rotating body attached to it is known as the inertial rest frame for that body. An inertial reference frame that is a rest frame for a particular body moves with the body when observed by observers in relative motion.

This type of reference frame became known as an "inertial" frame of reference because, as will be seen later in this book, each system of objects that are co-moving according to Newton's law of inertia (without rotation, gravitational fields or forces acting) have a common rest frame, with clocks that differ in synchronisation and rods that differ in length, from those in other, relatively moving, rest frames.

There are many other definitions of an "inertial reference frame" but most of these, such as "an inertial reference frame is a reference frame in which Newton's First Law is valid" do not provide essential details about how the coordinates are arranged and/or represent deductions from more fundamental definitions.

The following definition by Blandford and Thorne(2004) is a fairly complete summary of what working physicists mean by an inertial frame of reference: "An inertial reference frame is a (conceptual) three-dimensional latticework of measuring rods and clocks with the following properties: (i ) The latticework moves freely through spacetime (i.e., no forces act on it), and is attached to gyroscopes so it does not rotate with respect to distant, celestial objects. (ii ) The measuring rods form an orthogonal lattice and the length intervals marked on them are uniform when compared to, e.g., the wavelength of light emitted by some standard type of atom or molecule; and therefore the rods form an orthonormal, Cartesian coordinate system with the coordinate x measured along one axis, y along another, and z along the third. (iii ) The clocks are densely packed throughout the latticework so that, ideally, there is a separate clock at every lattice point. (iv ) The clocks tick uniformly when compared, e.g., to the period of the light emitted by some standard type of atom or molecule; i.e., they are ideal clocks. (v) The clocks are synchronized by the Einstein synchronization process: If a pulse of light, emitted by one of the clocks, bounces off a mirror attached to another and then returns, the time of bounce $$t_b$$ as measured by the clock that does the bouncing is the average of the times of emission and reception as measured by the emitting and receiving clock: $$t_b=1/2(t_e + t_r)$$.¹

¹For a deeper discussion of the nature of ideal clocks and ideal measuring rods see, e.g., pp. 23-29 and 395-399 of Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler (1973)."

Special Relativity demonstrates that the inertial rest frames of objects that are moving relative to each other do not overlay one another. Each observer sees the other, moving observer's, inertial frame of reference as distorted. This discovery is the essence of Special Relativity and means that the transformation of coordinates and other measurements between moving observers is complicated. It will be discussed in depth below.

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User talk:Super3boy

Note: This tutorial is under constuction. Please excuse the spellings and grammer for now.
Firefox By: Shawn Wilkinson

Introduction Firefox is a piece of software the allows you to surf the web. This piece of software and others like it are known as web browsers, or more common browsers, because they say what they do. They browse the web. Firefox is in my opinion and many others the best browser. It has tabbed browsing, a password saver, search engine search, and many other features build in (these feature will be explained later). Firefox is also very secure, which is an important feature because of the many people out there that can take your information. In this tutorial you will learn how to use how to use firefox to the best of its capabilities. If you are a beginner or as, in the internet world a noob, you will learn a lot from this tutorial, or if you are a very skilled in computers you can learn tips and tricks on this browser (h4xx0r). Installation Lets first install this program. If you already have this program on your system you can you may skip this step

title: User talk:Super3boy


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User:Super3boy

Super3boy
Personal Site: www.super3boy.info Forum: www.nystic.com(free stuff)

title: User:Super3boy


text:
User:Tdkehoe

I own Casa Futura Technologies. I'm a member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.

My Wiki projects are:

 Wikipedia stuttering Wikibooks Stuttering Wikibooks Russian Wikibooks Basic Book Design Wikibooks Relationships Wikia fiction Who Wants to Be an American?

You can read all about me at http://www.myspace.com/43380153

title: User:Tdkehoe


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User talk:Water Bottle~enwikibooks

Hello and welcome to Wikibooks!

Here are some tips to help you get started:
 * You can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~.
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You will find more resources in Community Portal. If you want to ask a question, visit the Study help desk, the Staff lounge, or ask me personally on my talk page.

Good luck! Although, I am pretty sure you've been here before. ;-) -- LV (Dark Mark) 15:47, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Water Bottle. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Water Bottle~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:51, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:38, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Water Bottle~enwikibooks