Operant Conditioning in Stuttering Therapy

Operant Conditioning in Stuttering Therapy First, let's define terms: > - *reinforcement* is a consequence that will strengthen an organism's future behavior whenever that behavior is preceded by a specific antecedent stimulus > - *Positive reinforcement* occurs when a desirable event or stimulus is presented as a consequence of a behavior and the behavior increases > - *Negative reinforcement* occurs when the rate of a behavior increases because an aversive event or stimulus is removed or prevented from happening > - Though *punishment* may seem just the opposite of reinforcement, Skinner claimed that they differ immensely, saying that positive reinforcement results in lasting behavioral modification (long-term) whereas punishment changes behavior only temporarily (short-term) and has many detrimental side-effects [src](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement) Here's an abstract to [this review](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0094730X84900111): > This article reviews research concerning the use of operant conditioning in stuttering therapy, and discusses the clinical implications of this literature. In order to be considered for this review, a report had to treat the findings of research specifically designed to use operant conditioning in the manipulation of speech disfluency. This body of experimental literature clearly indicates that operant management techniques can effectively reduce stuttering with punishment of disfluencies producing more notable results than reinforcement of fluent responses. Operant conditioning is an effective means of modifying stuttering behavior and should be more visible in terms of procedures used by speech therapists. I have recently read "Don't Shoot the Dog" in an effort to train my Boxer puppy. And it got me thinking about the application of positive reinforcement to speech. Often when I was young and get "punished" for disfluency, I would get unstuck in the short term but the effect wasn't long lasting. More recently, I've been trying to notice when I know I'm going to stutter and giving myself praise when I get past a block smoothly. It's been a number of years since I was in speech therapy but how do you think conditioning could be used? Or how could you condition yourself outside of therapy? Or do you think this isn't a good way to go about it? Why or why not?