Fluency
Learn the essentials, plan useful therapy, write a measurable goal, and document the work.
- Learn
- Therapy Ideas
- Write Goals
- Document
- Use Resources
General Information
Fluency assessment includes speech characteristics and the speaker’s experience of talking: effort, tension, avoidance, confidence, and participation. The SLP collaborates with the speaker on goals that may include communication effectiveness, self-advocacy, and comfort. Perfectly fluent speech is not the only meaningful outcome.
What to consider in assessment
Listen across speaking situations and ask the speaker about effort, tension, anticipation, avoidance, impact, and what they want to change. Frequency measures can be useful, but they do not represent the whole experience. Consider the language and communication contexts in which samples were obtained.
What the SLP can address
The SLP collaborates on goals for participation, comfortable communication, awareness, self-advocacy, and selected strategies. Treatment success need not mean eliminating stuttering.
Therapy Tips
Choose a speaking task the person values, such as sharing a classroom idea. Practice an agreed strategy or self-advocacy message, then ask how it felt and whether the person could communicate what mattered. Measure participation and support alongside any fluency measures.
- Ask what speaking situations the person wants to navigate more comfortably.
- Document strategy use and speaking participation in the chosen context, with the speaker’s perspective.
- Avoid interpreting the number of stutters alone as success or failure.
Choose strategies using assessment findings, the person’s preferences, and the treatment context.
Goal Writing
Specify the functional context, observable response, criterion, support level, and how progress will be checked.
During a self-selected speaking task, the student will identify and use one preferred communication or self-advocacy strategy in 4 of 5 opportunities with the agreed support across three sessions.
SOAP Note Tips
Record the speaker’s report separately from observed characteristics. Describe setting, task, selected strategy, independent use, tension or avoidance when observed, and the person’s own evaluation.
- S: Record the speaker’s self-report and valued contexts.
- O: Include speaking context, observed disfluencies or tension when relevant, opportunities, and supports.
- A and P: Describe participation, comfort, and chosen strategy use alongside any speech measures.
During a three-minute group discussion, the student contributed three ideas, used a self-selected pause before speaking twice without prompts, and reported feeling comfortable sharing the message.
Site Resources
Continue with resources currently available on Culturally Speaking SLPs.