Delayed Auditory feedback is based on Choral effect. When you say something in unison with others- you forget all your hesitation and speak fluently. This is no cure and no strategy for long term management. Just a way to convince yourself that you can be fluent- under some circumstances- if you already did not know this. Here are two links for free download of this program. Both are free and have no time limit. All you need is a computer (with Windows) and a headset with microphone.
http://www.speechmonitor.org/SpeechMonitorZipped.zip
http://www.fluencycoach.com/download.php
First is my favorite- Rick Arenas’s software. Second is a free offering from Speecheasy- who make very costly portable device. Both offer three controls: one to play with delay in the echo of your own voice; second, to play with the pitch (frequency) of your voice played back in your ears, making it squeaky or deep chesty. Third is to record your voice. Interestingly on my laptop, Rick’s program recorded my actual voice, while the Fluency Coach recorded the frequency modulated version of my voice- squeky like a chipmunk!
It might be good for those who have just begun the exploration of their speech; they could record it under various conditions- talking to some one on phone, reading out, self-talk, singing etc. and then playing it back to study their own voice. Listening to one’s own voice can be very moving experience. One can also learn to change one’s pitch and other characteristics by regularly doing this.
But at the end of the day- DAF does little to address the psychological issues, which we face when we talk to others during daily life situations. How can it desensitize you and lessen your fear of human encounter, when you practice it on a computer in the privacy of home? If you can learn this, by playing with it for a few days, i would call it a good investment of your time and bandwidth!
A last word about costly DAF machines: people who ordered it, rarely use it beyond 1-2 weeks; the kind of irrational promotion it received has been well documented and critiqued at Stuttertalk, may be for the first time. Listen to the podcast and become a more informed customer.
