Which statement about the three fluency management strategies (prolonged speech, cancellation, and pullout) is NOT true?

• A. Prolonged speech reduces the frequency of part-word repetitions and sound prolongations significantly.
• B. Each of the three strategies entails deliberate regulation of speech motor movements.
• C. The client will seek to apply cancellation whenever he feels anxious about the possibility of stuttering overtly.
• D. The client will seek to apply pullout during the course of part-word repetition or sound prolongation.

Answer: (C)

These strategies are ways to manage fluency by intentionally guiding how speech is produced, giving the speaker more control over the timing and movement of the speech mechanism. Prolonged speech works by slowing and stretching sounds, which helps the mouth and voice coordinate more smoothly. By extending durations and reducing speed, this approach often lowers the frequency of disfluencies such as part-word repetitions and sound prolongations.

Each of the three techniques relies on deliberate regulation of speech motor movements. Prolonged speech changes how you move your articulators over time. Cancellation involves pausing after a stuttered word and then saying the word again with more fluent timing, and pullout requires a quick, controlled adjustment of the speech mechanism during a stutter to ease into fluent speech. So, all three require purposeful control of how speech is produced.

The statement about using cancellation whenever anxiety about stuttering is felt isn’t accurate. Cancellation is applied after a stutter has occurred, as a way to produce the previously stuttered word more fluently in that moment. It isn’t a preemptive strategy aimed at anxiety about stuttering. Pullout, by contrast, is used during the disfluency, and prolonged speech is a broader technique for altering speech production timing.