Speaking face-to-face with a virtual avatar to reduce anxiety in students who stutter: Tool development and pilot study results

This study demonstrates evidence that the potential use of immersive VR could represent an acceptable and viable complementary strategy for SLP treatment, that could control exposure parameters while evoking physiological responses similar to real-life contexts. The differences between subjective and physiological measures suggest that VR is inducing anxiety responses differently than it was perceived. Further research could investigate the use of VR as anxiety interventions for students who stutter and should be explored across multi-session studies to understand their therapeutic effect.