Teaching · Speech & Language

Count the moments, then do the arithmetic.

Tap a counter for each part-word repetition, block, prolongation or repeated one-syllable word, and for the ordinary disfluencies everyone has. Enter the syllables in the sample, and the organizer gives the percent of syllables stuttered, the other disfluencies per 100 syllables and the speaking rate, next to what you saw and what the student says about talking.

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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Speech & Language toolkit, $79 for 72 items.

The fluency organizer

One record per sample, keyed by the student’s initials or code and the date. Counting from a recording is more accurate than counting live. The example is made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Speech & Language$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
A record of each speech sample: the task, syllables and minutes; counts of four stuttering-like and three other kinds of disfluency; the longest moment and most repetitions; physical tension and avoidance; and the student’s own view. The summary gives %SS, other disfluencies per 100 syllables, the share that is stuttering-like and syllables per minute.
Who it is for
School speech-language pathologists screening a student for stuttering or monitoring a student on their caseload, and graduate clinicians learning to count disfluencies.
Format
Browser organizer with large counter buttons for counting during a recording or live. Several saved samples per student; printed with the summary or as a blank counting sheet; CSV with one row per sample; export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Speech & Language toolkit ($79) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Speech & Language space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.
Iwantthebigbaaallplease400 syllables · 24 stuttered · 6.0%
Drawn for this page. A repetition, a block and a prolongation are each one stuttering-like moment; %SS divides them by the syllables in the sample.

How to use it

  1. Record a sample of at least a few minutes of talking, ideally in more than one task.
  2. Start a record and choose the task. Play the recording and tap a counter once for each moment of disfluency.
  3. Count the syllables the student meant to say (not the extra ones in repetitions) and the minutes of talking, and enter them.
  4. Note tension and avoidance, then ask the student the four questions in plain words and write their answers.
  5. Read %SS and the other measures, set the outcome and print. Take samples on other days before deciding anything.

Start a sample

The measures, and what they leave out

What %SS measures

Percent syllables stuttered is the number of stuttering-like disfluencies divided by the syllables in the sample, times 100. Stuttering-like disfluencies are part-word repetitions, repetitions of one-syllable words, prolongations and blocks; phrase repetitions, revisions and interjections are counted separately as other disfluencies. A moment counts once however many times a sound repeats.

No severity label

The organizer gives the measures and stops there. It does not call a sample mild or severe or compare it with norms; published severity instruments have their own procedures. Stuttering varies a great deal by day, listener and task, so one sample says little on its own, and how a student feels about talking matters as much as the count.

Asking the student

The four statements were written for this page and are not a scale. Ask only if the student is comfortable, write their answers, and follow up on any teasing. Records use a code, never a name, and stay in this browser.

Sources

  1. Yairi, E., and Seery, C. H. Stuttering: Foundations and Clinical Applications (3rd ed.). San Diego: Plural, on stuttering-like and other disfluencies and %SS.
  2. Ambrose, N. G., and Yairi, E. (1999). Normative disfluency data for early childhood stuttering. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 42(4), 895–909, on the stuttering-like disfluency categories.
  3. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Practice Portal: Fluency Disorders (asha.org/practice-portal).
  4. Yaruss, J. S., and Quesal, R. W. (2006). Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES). Journal of Fluency Disorders, 31(2), 90–115, on the speaker’s own experience as part of assessment (the page does not reproduce it).
  5. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.302 (screening for instructional purposes is not evaluation).

The example student and sample are made up. The organizer counts and divides; it gives no norms, severity rating or diagnosis, and it holds no state rules. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.