Stuttering Data: Fluency Observation Data Sheets

Fluency data during stuttering therapy is difficult. I have tried a number of ways to track fluent syllables and I needed one that was fast and showed me what kinds of disfluencies were happening. These are a couple of data sheets I put together earlier this year. They are quick, especially once you have all the "codes" memorized. Syllable tracking can be hard, especially when your client talks really fast! Sometimes I have had to ask my students to pause for a minute while I think back about the syllables in a long sentence. I had to do that a lot when I first started. Now I am pretty dang quick and can usually track the syllables as they speak at the normal pace. Ideally you would record a speech sample and pause between the sentences while you take data. And in the ideal world you would transcribe every word in the sample and have an accompanying video recording. But let's be honest, what clinician has the time to record a session and then transcribe the session and then do a syllable count? Not me! Taking data as the session goes is more realistic for those of us with high caseloads and little time. Where time permits I still suggest using a recording device so you can double check your sample.

The gray boxes are for you to tally any syllables said, the white boxes underneath are where you would write a code if there was a disfluency. The codes for the different disfluencies are listed on the bottom of the data sheet. It's kind of hard to explain but look at this example and hopefully it helps.

I made a daily therapy data log that is similar to this full observation sheet. Here it is. I don't love it because it is visually cluttered and I'm slightly OCD but it has worked. I'll have to tweak it for next year I think.

Here's the example of how I used it with one of my students.

Young Stuttering Therapy

Check this post out for some simple ideas to implement in therapy with young stuttering clients. Post includes The Speech Guy and Speech Roads