Question
I have a student with autism that I am assessing. I have transcribed a speech sample to assess his fluency. I'm having difficulty determining how many syllables/words are in some sections for scoring. For example, on a couple of occasions the student aban
Answer
I have a student with autism that I am assessing. I have transcribed a speech sample to assess his fluency. I'm having difficulty determining how many syllables/words are in some sections for scoring. For example, on a couple of occasions the student abandoned words -
"I just forgot what I sss...what I'm try...gonna say."
I would call this a revision with a phrase repetition - in other words not stuttering-like. So for the word count it would be 4 words (e.g., "I just forgot what), Revision (1 instance), Phrase repetition (1 instance) so for the utterance 6 "words" with 2 disfluencies.
"to make a...to make the...the a giant robot..."
I would call this a phrase repetition w/ a revision also I would count it toward the total words as a PR (phrase rep) so essentially 1 word and REV (revision) another word and then 3 words for the end of the utterance (a giant robot). For the utterance: 5 "words" with 2 disfluencies
"Devastator the favor...on...ah...never mind"
This one would be 4 words (e.g., "Devastator the favor on") plus 1 Interjection plus 1 word ("nevermind"). For the utterance: 6 "words" with 1 disfluency
The key with doing a disfluency count is the consistency with which you code things. Make sure you are not switching between words and syllables in your count. Choose a method and go with it. The same holds true for stuttering-like versus non-stuttering like disfluencies. Once you've decided that the above is phrase repetition and revision you need to code it that way for the rest of the sample. The duration and number of iterations for the sound-syllable reps and whole-word repetitions is also going to be something you are going to need to be aware of. For example, if a child says, "Mom-Mom-Mom-Mom-Mom can I go outside?" I would count the repetitions of "Mom" as 1 whole-word repetition so that the word count for the utterance would be 5. (e.g., "whole-word repetition can I go outside")
Overall it sounds like a child with a lot of processing interference. Without actually hearing the sample, I can't speak to how "abnormal" the disfluencies sound. All of us are disfluent between 3 and 10% of the time. What you are describing sounds like disfluency related to inefficient processing. Your best bet for reducing the disfluency is going to be to reduce speech rate. I would try a lead-by-example approach and see if by modeling a reduced rate with pauses for processing time you can dial his speech down. Otherwise, usually improving language skills improves fluency in kids who are really struggling to put all of the linguistic pieces together. The Working Memory subtest of the CELF-4 might give some insight in terms of language processing efficiency.
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Corrin G. Richels earned her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Science from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN in May, 2004. She is an assistant professor at Old Dominion University in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in Norfolk, VA. Her interests include the assessment, treatment, and systematic study of language disorders including childhood stuttering.
