Fluency/Stuttering Curriculums for Speech Therapy
Comprehensive Plans for Helping Children who Stutter
Our comprehensive curriculums for fluency make it easy to help children who stutter or who have other disfluencies. This page will show you what’s included and who would benefit from this program.
Who’s it For?
Children and teens who repeat sounds, syllables, words, or phrases when speaking
Those who struggle to coordinate their breathing with their speech (gasping or running out of air)
Those who have trouble with word-finding, may say the wrong words or use vague words like “stuff” or “that thing”
Those who elongate sounds or seem to get stuck on them
Those who get anxious or frustrated by their disfluencies
Who Can Use It?
Speech-Language Pathologists and Professionals
Speech Language Therapy Assistants and SLPAs
Parents and Caregivers
Teachers and Educators
Choose your Curriculum:
Foundations for Fluency Curriculum (Breathing and Emotional Reactions):
Signs:
- Seems unaware that they are stuttering or have disfluencies
- Seems upset by their stuttering/disfluencies
- Has negative thoughts about self or low self confidence due to stuttering/disfluencies
- Gets visibly anxious or upset when stuttering/ having disfluencies
- Refuses to talk about their stuttering/ disfluencies
- Struggles to coordinate breathing with speech
- Stops in the middle of sentences or phrases to breathe
Levels:
This Curriculum is broken down into three levels:
Beginner Level:
Breath-Speech Coordination
(Ages 5-8 yrs and beyond)
- Coordinating Breath with Speech
Intermediate Level:
Managing Reactions to Fluency Struggles
(Ages 7-10 yrs and beyond)
- Improving Awareness of Stuttering
- Dealing with Negative Emotions Regarding Stuttering
Advanced Level:
Self-Monitoring and Carryover of Fluency Strategies
(Ages 10-15 yrs and beyond)
- Integrating Fluency Strategies into Real-World Communication
* Age ranges represent when children typically master these skills. However, older children/teens who are missing these skills may still need to work on them as well.
Stuttering Curriculum:
Signs:
- Is younger than 5 years old with disfluency that comes and goes
OR
- Repeats whole words and phrases or revises what they were saying frequently
- Uses filler words like “um, uh”
- Repeats parts of words or single sounds
- Elongates sounds
- Seems to get stuck where no sound is coming out
- Sometimes uses movements or muscle tension to seemingly “push” through moments of stuttering
Levels:
This Curriculum is broken down into three levels:
Beginner Level:
Indirect Therapy for Young Children
(Ages 2-6 yrs and beyond)
- Improve Fluency through Indirect Strategies and Parent Training
- Teaching Fast/Slow and Bumpy/Smooth
Intermediate Level:
Fluency Shaping Techniques
(Ages 4-8 yrs and beyond)
- Slow Rate
- Easy Onset
- Continuous Voicing
- Light Articulatory Contact
- Prolongation
Advanced Level:
Stuttering Modification Techniques
(Ages 7-10 yrs and beyond)
- Preparatory Set
- Pull Out
- Cancellation
* Age ranges represent when children typically master these skills. However, older children/teens who are missing these skills may still need to work on them as well.
Cluttering Curriculum:
Signs:
- Speaks very quickly, causing speech to become more disfluent
- Fluency improves when told to speak more slowly
- Leaves out many sounds or word endings in conversational speech, sounds like words all run together
- Frequently uses filler words like “um” and “like”
- Often revises what they are saying mid-sentence (e.g., “I need to go…I mean I’m out of cheese”)
Levels:
This Curriculum is broken down into three levels:
Beginner Level:
Specific Strategies for Slow, Clear Speech
(Ages 7-10 yrs and beyond)
- Understanding Cluttering
- Learning and Practicing Specific Strategies for Slowing Rate and Increasing Intelligibility
Intermediate Level:
Increasing Mastery of Strategies
(Ages 9-12 yrs and beyond)
- Understanding and Identifying Communication Breakdowns
- Demonstrating strategies for slow, clear speech in practice scenarios
Advanced Level:
Correcting Intelligibility Issues in Conversations
(Ages 10-12 yrs and beyond)
- Using slow, clear speech strategies in the natural environment as needed
* Age ranges represent when children typically master these skills. However, older children/teens who are missing these skills may still need to work on them as well.
Word Finding/Word Retrieval Curriculum:
Signs:
- Overuses non-specific words like “that thing” and “stuff”
- Struggles to come up with the word they’re looking for
- Sometimes says the wrong word for things
- Talks around words (ex: “the red fruit that grows on trees”)
Levels:
This Curriculum is broken down into three levels:
Beginner Level:
Semantic Strategies
(Ages 4-7 yrs and beyond)
- Identifying semantic aspects of words, such as category, attributes, and associations
Intermediate Level:
Phonological Strategies
(Ages 4-8 yrs and beyond)
- Identifying phonological aspects of words, such as number of syllables/words, rhyming, and imagery
Advanced Level:
Conversational Strategies
(Ages 6-10 yrs and beyond)
- Use strategies during word-finding struggles in conversational speech
* Age ranges represent when children typically master these skills. However, older children/teens who are missing these skills may still need to work on them as well.
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