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