Over the years, I have learned from speaking with colleagues, that stuttering therapy is an area within our scope of practice that many of us feel less comfortable providing services. There are many reasons why this may be the case, such as not feeling confident in the area due to lack of training during graduate school, lack of experience working with students and individuals that stutter, and the fearful concern of doing more damage than good.
I feel so fortunate that I had an amazing professor and clinical supervisor while I had a fluency group during my clinical practicum. Thank you, Dr. Lohman-Hawk! I stepped away from graduate school feeling comfortable with stuttering and confident when working with individuals that stutter. Since graduate school was a long time ago, and there is always new research, I make sure to keep updated on evidence-based practice and assessment. If you happen to feel uncomfortable with fluency therapy, I hope this list of activities and resources will help.
SCREENING & PROGRESS MONITORING:
I use my FLUENCY (STUTTERING) SCREENER and PROGRESS MONITORING KIT since it can be used in-person or with teletherapy. The kit contains teacher feedback forms, a student observation form, speech disfluency count forms, student check-in attitudes/feelings, tell me how to… prompts, conversation starters, would you rather… prompts, pictured scenes, photo pictured scenes, and 150-300- word reading passages.
Check out my blog post on Screening and Progress Monitoring for Stuttering: In-Person vs. Teletherapy for additional tips and suggestions!
FAVORITE FLUENCY RESOURCES TO TARGET A VARIETY OF GOALS:
- MASH & MARK: FLUENCY – Hands and bodies can be busy while they learn to listen and track their own speech, identify the types of disfluencies, learn about the different fluency shaping strategies and stuttering modification techniques, using those strategies and techniques at various communication levels, and targeting desensitization by rating and facing fears and discussing how they would feel and handle some difficult social situations!
- NO PRINT FLUENCY TASKS – Use seasonal vocabulary and themes to work on fluency (stuttering) tasks such as learning about types of disfluencies, types of techniques/strategies, and practicing using those strategies at increasing levels of complexity. This resource also addresses social situations to facilitate discussions and work on desensitization.
- FLUENCY PUZZLES – Target a wide variety of fluency goals. The set includes a color version that is great for independent work or small groups. A black and white version of the puzzle pieces are also included for a low ink option and/or to provide students with carryover practice at home.
GAMES FOR OUR FLUENCY STUDENTS:
A common complaint that I received from my students that stutter is that they never got to play a game where they knew some of their classmates with articulation or language difficulties had. It was a sad truth and I set out to change that. They deserved to take a break to engage in a game while still targeting their goals too!
- WILD ONE FLUENCY CARD GAME – This quickly became a favorite with my students!
- TWISTED FLUENCY – This game companion targets fluency goals while getting them out of their seats. This resource is not to be used/played with students who have unsteady gait, near furniture, or with groups larger than 1-3 students playing at once. When in doubt of student safety, SLP should perform the actions.
- FLUENCY CARDS: SPEECH ON THE GO and/or CARIBOO GAME COMPANION – These little mini cards can be printed and put on a ring for a quick “on the go” resource or placed in a Cariboo game.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR CARRYOVER:
- HIGHLIGHTS MAGAZINE HIDDEN PICTURES – My students love using their strategies while using the different pictured prompts provided by Highlights Magazine such as Hidden Pictures, What’s Wrong with this Picture, and Silly Scenes. You can find a lot of these pictures online and sometimes, you can find the magazine in your school library.
- WOULD YOU RATHER… FREEBIES – Yes! I found a lot of Would You Rather Freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers.
- CONVERSATION STARTERS – Check out these additional freebies that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers!
- USE MENUS and SHOPPING CATALOGS – Have students pretend to order their favorite meal, explain a favorite food or favorite store item (i.e. toy, game, computer game, etc..), answer questions about the items in the menu or catalog
- USE FAVORITE BOOK, MAGAZINE, SHOW – Have students share about their interests while using their strategies.
- HAVE STUDENTS DRAW A PICTURE and TELL A STORY ABOUT IT WHILE DOING SO