There has been some marketing in recent years of a “miracle cure” for stuttering, often coming in the form of a hearing-aid-like device. These devices make use of delayed auditory feedback, playing the sound of a person’s speech back into their ear at a very slight delay (a small fraction of a second). Often, this will make a person’s speech completely fluent. 

However, these devices have three very important downsides:

• They are expensive, and their cost is typically paid out-of-pocket by individuals who stutter.

• They manage, rather than cure, stuttering. When the device is turned off, the individual’s speech will return to normal.

• People may develop a reliance on the device. Behavioural treatments rely on acceptance of stuttering, a set of strategies that can be applied at any time, and increased understanding of stuttering in general. These devices may work, but if at any time they malfunction or break, especially if this was to happen at an important moment, people who stutter may find themselves much less fluent than they would otherwise have been in that situation, because of severe anxiety about entering the situation without the device to rely on.