Encouraging

Speech Fluency

A Presentation for Parents

Nicole Shahinian, M.A., CCC-SLP

Jackie Hughes, M. A., CCC-SLP
Basic Good Tips
- How to Model Fluent Speech
● Be a good speaking role model. Model the speech behavior
you would like to see from your child.
● Speak a little slower when you are with your child. If you do
not rush speaking, your child will be less likely to rush
speaking. Slowing speech down will give his /her brain more
time to coordinate thoughts with the movement of his speech
muscles. Your child will be more fluent, when she/he is
speaking slower.
More Tips to Model Fluent Speech

● Pause 2 to 5 seconds before answering your child’s

questions. This helps your child become comfortable with
silent pauses.
● Model turn taking in conversation
○ This can eliminate interruptions and promote fluent
speech.
○ Example: If during conversations at home, siblings are
speaking over each other and speaking quickly, try to use
a ‘talking spoon.’ The person who is holding the talking
spoon is the only one speaking. Work out a system to
pass the spoon to the next person who wants to speak.
It’s okay to talk about
‘bumpy’ speech (stuttering).

● (We want you and your child to feel comfortable talking

about fluency and stuttering.)
● Things you can say:
○ Everyone has bumpy speech sometimes.
○ We are all working on having smooth, flowing
speech.
○ Wow! That was some really smooth speech!
○ Praise your child if he/she is having a very fluent day.
○ It’s no big deal when speech is bumpy.
○ There are things we can do to help your speech be
more smooth (Do some fluency building activities.)
Fluency Building

● If a child is having a difficult time and stuttering a lot, there

are some fun things you can do with them to help get them
back to more fluent speech.
● These strategies to build speech fluency are slightly different
for each child.
● You can figure out what works for your child and add it to
their list. It is good to have a list of activities in your mind that
you can do with your child whenever she/he is struggling with
fluency.
Fluency Building: Activities

● Singing familiar songs. Most people are fluent when they

sing, because it is a structured and familiar repetitive task
which involves muscle memory.
● Quoting lines from the child’s favorite TV show or movie.
Saying familiar lines out loud is another way to build fluency,
because it is a structured task. Most people are more likely to
be fluent when they are saying words that are familiar.
● Doing speech homework for pronunciation If you child is not
working on speech pronunciation, have the child repeat after
you saying single words or short phrases that your child can
easily repeat with fluent speech.
FLuency Building: Activities Slide 2

● Asking very concrete questions that only require a one to

two word response (questions with a choice). For example
“Was lunch today good or not good?” It can even be made
into a fun game, where you can ask silly questions of
preference. For example, ‘Do you like bugs or pigs better?
Which do you like better: ice cream or cake?”
○ You can make it a game - “The Quick Question Game”
Have fun asking questions: Which do you like better:
hugs or high fives? Which do you like better: cookies or
cake?, Which do you like better: dogs or cats? The child
should say single words or short phrases fluently in
response to your questions.
● Feel free to come up with fluency building activities that work
for your child. Make a list of activities to use when you need to
increase your child’s speech fluency.
Fluency and Questions

● When a child is having a very

dysfluent day, offer easier types of
questions instead of questions that
require a lengthier response.
● The student will be most likely to
be fluent when repeating single
word answers or short phrases.
Types Questions and Examples

● Most challenging questions- require a lengthier response

○ “How was your day?, Tell me about your day. What did you do in
school today?” “How did you find the answer? “Why did the
character do that?”
○ It may be difficulty for a child to be fluent when asked questions
like these.
● Less challenging: Offering a choice between two sentence length
responses.
○ For example, “Did you work on reading with Mrs. Book first or
did you work on math with Mrs. Plus first?, Did you add one plus
three or add five plus seven?, Did the main character go to the
park or to the beach?
● Least challenging: Offering a choice between 2 single word
responses.
■ For example, “Which was more fun today math or reading?,
Is the answer 2 or 7?, or In the book, did Lucy get a pen or
an apple?”
Building Speech Fluency in Conversation

● Let your child finish his/her thought (giving the child

as much time as needed to get out what he/she is
trying to say).
● Respond to your child’s dysfluency by rephrasing
their sentence in a slow, fluent way. For example, if
he/she stuttered when he/she said, “I llllllike
dinosaurs.” You could say slowly: “You like dinosaurs; I
like dinosaurs too.”
● Then naturally redirect activity to fluency building.
“Hey, let's play/do…..”
● After you do a fluency building activity, then naturally
revisit conversation or start a new conversation.
 Final Thoughts

● You can reduce communicative pressure on a child

by expecting a shorter response.
● Use fluency building activities naturally as a fun
break, to work on boosting a relaxed state where
the child is more likely to speak fluently.
○ As speech dysfluency in conversation increases,
add in a fluency building activity to encourage
your child to return to a more relaxed state.