The role of misidentification of own speech in childhood stuttering
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The role of misidentification of own speech in childhood stuttering
IRAS ID
210702
Contact name
Max Gattie
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 5 months, 8 days
Research summary
Sumary of Research
We want to find out how children recognise their own speech. We are particularly interested in the connection between own speech recognition and developmental stuttering.If children who stutter hear their own speech differently to children who don’t stutter, then changing the way own speech is heard may reduce the development of persistent stuttering. Our research will assess whether auditory training could be a viable therapy for childhood stuttering.
In our study, we will track development of two auditory measures. The first of these is the auditory brainstem response to speech. The second is the vestibular threshold to sound. Both of these are standard clinical tests. The inventiveness of our study is in using the standard tests to track auditory development in children who stutter, and a control group of children who do not stutter, over a period of five years from 2016 to 2020.
We will conduct the tests primarily on university premises. This will be mainly at the University of Manchester. We will also conduct some tests at the University of Liverpool, Lancaster University, and University College, London. With portable equipment, we can conduct tests on NHS premises.
To carry out our testing, we will attach sticky sensors to the participant’s head. The sensors will be attached to the neck, and/or ear lobes, and/or top of the head. We will play sounds to participants through headphones and record the signals generated by the sensors. Data collection using the sensors will last for less than an hour, during which participants will be free to watch videos or play computer games.
Participants will be aged 2–4 at the beginning of our study, and 6–8 at the end. We will retest biannually.
Summary of Results
We did not collect data for this study. There are no results to summarise.The reason for this was that our initial data collection used a university ethics approval for testing with adults. We had planned to use the NHS ethics for testing with children. However, this part of the project was delayed twice. At first, there was a delay due to analysis of the adult data. Then, there was a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the PhD was completed using adult data only. Thus, the university ethics approval was adequate for the PhD. Child participants were not recruited using the NHS ethics approval.
REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
17/NI/0020
Date of REC Opinion
2 May 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion