Validating Virtual Reality Environments for Use in Stuttering Assessment

Shelley B. Brundage, Ken Graap, Adrienne Hancock, Kristen Kiselewich, Jeremy Brooks and Mirtha Ferrer

Virtual Reality Job Interviews (VRJI) and Virtual Reality Audiences (VRA) were tested to see if the speech patterns of persons who stutter (PWS) would react in ways similar to those seen in the real world. Subjects were assigned to challenging and facilitative VRJI’s. In mild-to-moderately severe PWS, the challenging VRJI environments led to more stuttering. To date, similar effects on frequency of stuttering have been observed during speeches to challenging and facilitative virtual audiences. Data from several studies will be presented that suggested VR offered a safe, reliable, repeatable and confidential alternative to obtaining speech samples in the real world.