Breathing and speech monitoring wearable device to help people who stammer gain fluency

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About 1% of the population stutters. This is a condition that deeply affects people who stutter (PWS) at all social, personal and professional levels. Even if it is currently not possible to cure stuttering, there exists a series of practices that, when mastered, help PWS to gain fluency and reach an articulation level similar to that of a non-stutterer. Several companies such as the Starfish Project, Del Ferro Institute or McGuire Program, currently run courses worldwide to help people to overcome their stutter via these learned techniques. The largest challenge to a PWS is turning these practices into habits, as this requires patience and dedication. We have developed a prototype wearable device that tracks speech and breathing patterns, providing real-time feedback to help turn those techniques that improve the fluency of PWS into habits. We have patented the technology behind this prototype as it is the first of its kind, and last December our idea was awarded the Terence Barry Grant Award from the Stammer Trust. Through this project we will commercially and scientifically validate our concept (with potential customers and speech therapists) and finish prototype development. From this process we hope to understand how our device can best help PWS to gain fluency.