Yaruss Practice Activities

CSD 2072: Fluency Disorders
Practice Assignment #1: Stuttering in Public (Due 2/6/06)

Purpose

(1)   To give you a sense of what it would be like to be a person who stutters so you can begin to understand what your clients experience on a day-to-day basis.

(2)   To give you an opportunity to practice a primary technique used in stuttering treatment

(3)   To begin to desensitize you to stuttering so you will not react negatively to you clients’ stuttering or shy away from desensitization activities your clients may need in treatment.

Assignment

First, practice stuttering with some from the class to make sure your pseudostuttering behaviors are repre­sentative of real stuttering and to help you feel more comfortable with pseudostuttering. Next, stutter openly in public in at least 10 situations. Be sure to vary your stuttering behaviors so they appear realistic. You should do this with a partner, in part to make the assignment easier, and in part so your partner can provide feedback to you about how well you stuttered. Your partner can also watch carefully for the reactions of the people you interact with during the assignment.

Examples of situations where you can do pseudostuttering include the following:

• ordering at a coffee bar
• asking for directions to a building on campus
• calling information for a phone number
• buying clothing at a department store
• buying a book at the bookstore
• ordering pizza over the phone
• ordering lunch in a restaurant
• calling a radio talk show

Try to make this assignment as real as possible. Don’t just stutter once during the conver­sation and then be done with it. Try to become a person who stutters so you can begin to understand what our clients face on a daily basis.

Documentation

Post a summary of your experiences under the thread created for this assignment on the Black­Board website. In your summary, be sure to answer the following questions:

• In what situations did you pseudostutter and what types of stuttering behaviors did you exhibit (severity, secondary characteristics, etc.)?
• What were the reactions of the people you were talking to? What were your own reactions?
• How did stuttering affect your ability to communicate?
• Were some situations easier or harder than others? Why do you think that was?
• Did pseudostuttering become easier or harder as you progressed through the assignment?

Finally, you should also include in your documentation a comparison between your experiences and the experiences of two or three of the students who posted their summaries before you.

Scoring

This assignment is worth a total of 30 points, as follows: For the pseudostuttering, you will receive up to 20 points (up to 2 points for each of 10 situations): 1 point for entering the situation and pseudostuttering and 1 point for continuing to exhibit pseudo­stuttering throughout the entire interaction (You will need your partner to help with the scor­ing.) For the write-up, you will receive up to 10 points: up to 4 points for your description of your reaction and the reactions of others, up to 4 points for your description of how stuttering affected your communication in different situations, and up to 2 points assigned by me for excellent write-ups.

CSD 2072: Fluency Disorders:
Practice Assignment #2: Evaluating and Measuring Speech Fluency (Due 2/27/06)

Purpose

(1)   To give you experience evaluating and measuring observable aspects of speech fluency

(2)   To help you develop intra- and inter-judge reliability in identifying disfluencies

Assignment

You will work in pairs or small groups for this assignment. First, each member of your group should work individually to review a videotape of a child who stutters (available in class) and determine:

• The frequency of disfluency
• The types of disfluencies
• The average duration of stuttered disfluencies
• The overall severity of stuttering according to the SSI
• The child’s rate of speech in syllables per second

Second, after a few days, each member of the group should again review the tape individually and complete the calculation of stuttering frequency again in order to assess intrajudge agreement.

Finally, group members should compare their individual judgments of the videotape to assess interjudge agreement. In cases where interjudge agreement is poor, you

Yaruss, J.S. (1998). Real-time analysis of speech fluency: Procedures and reliability training. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 7(2), 25-37.

Yaruss, J.S. (1997). Clinical measurement of stuttering behaviors. Contemporary Issues in Communi­cation Science
and Disorders, 24, 33-44.

CSD 2072: Fluency Disorders
Practice Assignment #3: What would it be like to be in stuttering therapy? (Due 3/27/06)

Purpose

(1)   To help you practice speech and stuttering modifications commonly used in treatment.

(2)   To help you understand the difficulties clients often face when use these techniques in the real world.

Assignment I

First, practice using the primary speech modifications we discussed in class until you are able to do them comfortably and accurately. The speech modifications you should practice include:

• Slow speech (with pausing and phrasing)
• Easy Starts
• Light Contact

Next, use these three techniques in 15 different speaking situations. Make sure you get experience with all three techniques, not just the ones you find easier to do. In order to do this, you will first have to pretend to be a person who stutters (as in Assignment #1). Try to use the modification consistently like you want your clients to do. As with Assignment #1, you should do this in pairs so your partner can provide feedback about your stuttering, your modifications, and listeners’ reactions.

Assignment – Part II

First, practice using the primary stuttering modifications we discussed in class until you are able to do them comfortably and accurately. The speech modifications you should practice include:

• Preparatory Set
• Cancellation
• Pull-out

Next, use these three techniques in 15 different speaking situations. Make sure you should review the tape with your group to reach consensus agreement on the behaviors in the sample.

Documentation

Each group should post a brief summary of their experience with this practice assignment on the Blackboard website. Specific questions to address include:

• What stuttering behaviors were observed in the tape?
• What difficulties did you run into in counting stuttering behaviors?
• How reliable were your judgments and what factors appeared to influence that reliability?
• How could you improve your measurements?

Scoring

This practice assignment, which consists of 3 components (frequency count, reliability check, and write-up) is worth up to 30 points. For the frequency count, you will receive up to 10 points for calculating measures of disfluency (2 points each for frequency, duration, type, speaking rate, and severity). For the reliability check, you will receive up to 10 points for achieving and demonstrating intrajudge and interjudge reliability (5 points each). For the write-up, you will receive up to 10 points (up to 2 points for each of the 4 ques­tions outlined above, plus 2 additional points for citing novel literature on stuttering measurement.)

References

There is a huge literature on the reliability of stuttering measurements. I have prepared two tutorial articles outlining procedures for measuring stuttering; however, there is more literature you may wish to consider. For starters, here are references for the two articles I have written. get experience with all three techniques, not just the ones you find easier to do. In order to do this, you will first have to pretend to be a person who stutters (as in Assignment #1). Try to use the modification consistently like you want your clients to do. As with Assignment #1, you should do this in pairs so your partner can provide feedback about your stuttering, your modifications, and listeners’ reactions.

Documentation

Post a brief summary under the thread created for your small group on the BlackBoard website. For each part of the assignment, address the following questions in your write-up:

• What was it like to try to change your speech?
• Did the modifications come naturally?
• Would you like to talk this way all the time? Do you think you would be able to do so if you tried?
• How do you think a person who stutters feels when we ask them to do use such modifications?

You should also include in your documentation a comparison between your experiences and the experiences of two or three of the students who posted their summaries before you.

Scoring

This assignment is worth a total of 40 points, as follows: For the speech modifications, you will receive up to 15 points (1 points for each of 15 situations). The same is true for the stuttering modifications (1 point for each of 15 situations). For the write-up, you will receive up to 10 points: up to 2 points for answering each of the 4 questions above, and up to 2 points assigned by me for excellent write-ups.

CSD 2072: Fluency Disorders: Group Project and Poster Presentation

(To be presented in class 4/17/06 and 4/24/06)

Purpose

(1)   To help you evaluate new information about stuttering that might arise during you career.

(2)   To support the development of specific areas of interest in stuttering.

(3)   To encourage you to develop your own opinions about various topics in stuttering.

Project

You will work in small groups for this assignment. Each group will select a topic of mutual interest and prepare a poster presentation on the topic. Examples of topics that would be appropriate include:

• Reading several personal stories of people who stutter and presenting a comprehensive review
• Interviewing people about their knowledge and opinions about stuttering and presenting a review of your findings, including a comparison with existing literature
• Interviewing practicing SLPs about their knowledge and opinions about stuttering and presenting a review of your findings, including a comparison with existing literature
• Critically reviewing online resources for stuttering
• Actively participating in the Stutt-L listserv and critically reviewing the contents
• Attending several NSA meetings and conducting interviews with people who stutter
• Critically reviewing material available for SLPs from the National Stuttering Association or Stuttering Foundation of America

Groups should select their topics by March 15 and get approval for the topic before proceeding. One topic that should be avoided is “reviewing movies about stuttering or people who stutter.” (That can be done for extra credit but not as a main project.)

Presentation

The poster presentation can be created either as a single large poster (several examples are available in the halls of Forbes Tower) or as a series of pages (PowerPoint slides) that will be printed and pinned to the wall individually. Half of the groups will present their posters on 4/17 and the other half will present their posters on 4/24. Students will have the opportunity to view other posters, ask questions, and discuss the content of the posters during each class.

Posters should reflect the work and participation of all members of the group; however, it will be left up to you to determine each members’ contributions. Specific topics to be addressed in your presentation will vary depending upon your project.

Handouts

Each group should prepare a brief handout outlining the group project, summarizing the important “take home” messages from the poster, and citing the appropriate references used in the project.

Scoring

The project and presentation will be worth up to 50 points, as follows: For the Project, you will receive up to 5 points for creativity in selecting the topic and up to 15 points for successfully completing the project. For the Poster, you will receive up to 10 points for coverage of your topic and up to 10 points for the quality of your poster. For the Handout, you will receive up to 10 points for including relevant details and citing appropriate literature. A final 5 points will be assigned for particularly excellent presentations.