Public speaking disfluencies: A review of habit reversal training and research

Luiselli (2022) read every JABA paper that used habit reversal to stop verbal fillers.

He found seven studies from 2016-2022 and wrote a short map of how each one was done.

The review looks at speakers with no diagnosis who say “uh” or “um” too often.

All seven papers used the same two-step package: notice the filler, then do a short silent breath.

Every study reported fewer fillers right after training.

No paper compared habit reversal to another treatment, so we do not know if it works better than cues or praise alone.

Mancuso et al. (2016) is one of the seven studies. Their six speakers dropped fillers to almost zero after one short session.

Gilman et al. (2005) used the same habit-reversal steps on tics, not speech. The match shows the package travels across topographies.

Campbell et al. (2021) cut loud vocal stereotypy with decibel feedback plus praise. Both projects quiet unwanted vocal noise, but Campbell added reinforcement while the seven speech studies did not.

If a client stumbles with “uh” during presentations, run the classic package: have them count each filler, then practice a silent competing response. Track for one week. If progress stalls, add praise or visual feedback like Campbell did.