Click here for an intake form for assessing fluency in preschool and school-age children.
When assessing fluency in young children, the big question is often whether to begin treatment or give them a few months to see if they grow out of it on their own. Here are some factors to consider when attempting to determine if a child's stuttering is developmental or has potential to be a long-term issue:
male
onset of stuttering on or after 3.5 years of age
family history of stuttering
persistence of stuttering for more than 14-18 months
production of more than two units per part word repetition
silent period between each unit of repetition is of shorter duration
dysrhythmic quality to stuttering
difficulties in areas of language, phonology and nonverbal skills
Another aspect of stuttering to consider is whether a child's stuttering is ambiguous or unambiguous:
Ambiguous stuttering includes:
- hesitations
- interjections
- revisions
- word repetitions
- phrase repetitions
- no more than 3 repetitions
Unambiguous stuttering includes:
- sound or syllable repetitions
- prolongations
- blocks
- any ambiguous stuttering with tension or multiple repetitions
- any behavior signaling avoidance of the stuttered syllable
Ambiguous stuttering can generally be considered to be normal, UNLESS:
1) there is any tension accompanying the ambiguous stutter,
2) ambiguous stuttering is happening at an usually high rate.
Adapted from a speechpathology.com course by Kathleen Fahey, PhD.
