1. RESEARCH OUTLINE
Ray Mancini | Prof. Tom Klinkowstein | Thesis 1
Monday, September 19, 2011

2. 1 : Overview
What is stuttering and speech disfluency?
• scientific definition
• statistics
• social and cultural relevance / stigma
My story as a stutterer
• Description of my stutter from childhood until now
• Therapies, techniques utilized by me, and their general results
• Adapting to a life with an impairment (positives and negatives)
My story as a designer
• The creative spark - becoming a designer
• The need for expression outside of verbal communication
Monday, September 19, 2011

3. 2 : Problem / Hypothesis
Define the Problem & Hypothesis
Monday, September 19, 2011

4. 3 : Speech Therapies
1. Introduction to & descriptions of the main speech therapy approaches
• Delayed Auditory Feedback and Anti-stuttering devices
• Medication
• Fluency Shaping
• Stress / Iowa Therapies / Psychotherapy
2. General Flaws Associated with each therapy approach
3. Overall Speech Therapy Flaws
Monday, September 19, 2011

5. 4 : Design Thinking
Overview on Design Thinking / Design Processes and what specific theories might be
applicable the hypothesis.
1. Design Exploration / Ideations
• More emphasis on playful experimentation vs. solving a problem
2. T-Shaped Designers
• Cultivating a more well-rounded approach to an individual, by having
established technical and disciplinary skills, coupled with inter-disciplinary
knowledge on a wide range of subjects and experience.
3. Convergence
• Prototyping possible scenarios for better design solutions that incrementally
improve the original inherited situation
4. Sustainability
• Managing the process of exploring, redefining and prototyping of design
solutions continually over time
Monday, September 19, 2011

6. 5 : Measuring Speech
This section deals with how speech disfluency is traditionally measured,
and might a more robust evaluation method be found?
1. Evaluate how speech disfluency is measured in traditional therapy
• what scales or tests are used?
• what is measurable?
• what is not measured, or not easily measurable, or simply missing?
(i.e. anxiety, expectations, lifestyle, culture, race, support at home, environment, overall health)
2. “The Anatomy of Speech”
• Based on this evaluation, define a new measuring standard that will allow
patients to discover the "Anatomy of Their Speech".
• “The Anatomy of Speech” will potentially be more well-rounded, measurable
way of approaching speech therapy, taking into account missing elements of
the current evaluation.
3. Creating a system of measurement for “The Anatomy of Speech”
• Using design thinking, are there experiments or criteria to help determine
the system of measurement for items that are not already measurable?
Monday, September 19, 2011

7. 6 : Experimenting/prototyping that will
aid in therapy
This section would illustrate how design thinking can “create” experiments
and exercises that will push stutterers towards improvements in the
revised “Anatomy of Speech” categories...and within their own
traditional therapies.
Monday, September 19, 2011

8. 7 : Social Interaction, Community-based
support, & Progress Tracking
Combine all aspects of the new “Anatomy of Speech”and all relevant
experiments into an interactive community, where individuals can
potentially chart their progress, receive support, and create a self-therapy
or augment their own traditional therapy.
Monday, September 19, 2011