Reducing speech disfluencies during public speaking using brief habit reversal

Four college students wanted to stop saying “uh” and “um” during talks.

The trainer gave each student a two-minute lesson. First they watched a video of their own speech and counted the disfluencies. Then they learned one new move: pause in silence instead of filling space with sounds.

No long drills, no weeks of therapy—just awareness plus one competing response.

After the single lesson every student dropped disfluencies by more than half.

One student later gave a class presentation and stayed almost filler-free with no extra coaching.

Perrin et al. (2021) copied the same quick habit-reversal core but added a group prize if the whole class improved. Their drop was medium, not large, showing the extra contingency may water down the punch.

Kahng et al. (1999) tried bare-bones habit reversal on nail-biting in adults with intellectual disability and saw no change until they piled on prompts and rewards. Together the papers warn: brief works for typical adults, but add supports when the learner has ID or when you add group contingencies.

Jones et al. (1998) treated public-speaking dread with CBT plus voice therapy. Their client felt better; Pawlik’s students sounded better. The two studies sit side-by-side: use CBT for fear, use habit reversal for tics and fillers.

If you coach staff or clients who give short reports, you can kill most “uh” and “um” in under five minutes. Show the speaker a 30-second clip, have them count the fillers, then practice silent pauses. One rehearsal is often enough. Save your heavy artillery for other goals.