CSD 4200
Introduction to Fluency Disorders

Descriptions of Assignments

For this assignment, you need to make three observations of normal speakers. Listen to each speaker for a minimum of 5 minutes and count the number of disfluencies that occur. Record your observations on the form provided for you For a really fun time, try to observe at least one child. Stay away from scripted media people such as TV, radio, and film characters and announcers. Non-scripted media people, such as talk show guests, are OK to use. 

Discussion Questions

What types of disfluencies occurred the most frequently?

Did any of the people give you the impression that they stuttered?

What was present that told you "not stuttering?"

What was absent that told you "not stuttering?"

What did you expect to find out before doing this assignment?

Did the results turn out the way you expected?

What surprised you the most about your observations?

What did you learn from this assignment?

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What is Stuttering Survey Project

25 points

February 8

For this project, choose five (5) non-CSD affiliated people to interview about what stuttering is. Your interview will be very short -- one main question, plus some demographic questions. Write down each subject's response as accurately as you can for later analysis.

Questions you need to ask: Gender; Age; Do you know anybody who stutters? What is stuttering? Use the exact same wording with each subject when you ask your primary question. After asking the primary question, you may elaborate or clarify IF the subject needs you to do so.

Analysis: Begin your analysis with a summary of the demographics of your subject sample (e.g. 3 males; 2 females; all 22-25 years of age). Analyze each written explanation of stuttering independently by identifying the elements that you see in it. For example, did the subject define stuttering as a behavior or a disorder? Did the subject mention anything about cause in the definition? What specific behaviors did the subject mention in the definition? What did the subject leave out of the definition.
After you have analyzed each individual response, you are ready to do the cross comparisons. For cross comparisons, look for themes in the responses. For example, maybe all 5 subjects defined stuttering as a behavior; maybe 4 people mentioned specific behaviors and 1 person didn't; maybe none of the subjects mentioned anything about stuttering being a developmental disorder that begins in childhood.

The paper: Your paper will look similar to the methods, results, discussion sections of a research article, although on a much smaller scale. Describe what you did and how you did it (these are your methods), including how you found your subjects. Describe your demographic information (this might work well in a table). State the exact wording of your question, and then describe the results of your analysis. End the paper with some kind of summary and conclusion.

Papers will probably be 5 pages or less. Use all of the appropriate writing conventions and APA style formatting.

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What Causes Stuttering Survey Project

25 points each

April 11

This project works much the same way as the "what is stuttering" project. For this project, choose five (5) non-CSD affiliated people to interview about what causes stuttering. They can be the same or different people whom you interviewed for the previous assignment. Your interview will be very short -- one main question, plus some demographic questions. Write down each subject's response as accurately as you can for later analysis.

Questions you need to ask: Gender; Age; Do you know anybody who stutters? What do you think causes stuttering? Use the exact same wording with each subject when you ask your primary question. After asking the primary question, you may elaborate or clarify IF the subject needs you to do so.

Analysis: Begin your analysis with a summary of the demographics of your subject sample (e.g. 3 males; 2 females; all 22-25 years of age). Analyze each written explanation of cause independently by identifying the elements that you see in it. For example, did the subjects' statements seem to explain the cause of stuttering as a behavior or stuttering as a disorder? What specific causal factors did the subjects mention? Into what theoretical category did the response seem to fall?
After you have analyzed each individual response, you are ready to do the cross comparisons. For cross comparisons, look for themes in the responses. For example, maybe all 5 subjects mentioned some kind of physical cause agent but did not specify that agent; maybe 2 people said it was caused by imitation and the others gave more vague responses.  Compare the results of your mini-sample to the larger class projects on public perceptions that we discussed in Unit 5.

The paper: Your paper will look similar to the methods, results, discussion sections of a research article, although on a much smaller scale. Describe what you did and how you did it (these are your methods), including how you found your subjects. Describe your demographic information (this might work well in a table). State the exact wording of your question, and then describe the results of your analysis. Make the comparisons to the larger class projects and/or any films shown in class, in order to put your results into a larger context;  look at your results in light of the information from Unit 5.  End the paper with some kind of summary and conclusion.

Papers will probably be 5 pages or less. Use all of the appropriate writing conventions and APA style formatting.

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The value of accurately imitating a client's communication behavior cannot be underestimated. Being able to speak as our clients speak serves us well in two ways. First, it allows us to understand what they are doing with their speech mechanism; second, it allows us a degree of empathy with our clients that we otherwise might not attain. Since working with people who stutter requires us, as clinicians, to call upon our deepest pools of empathy, we need to know what it feels like to stutter in public.

For this assignment, you need to go forth in public and stutter purposely on two separate occasions. For each occasion, take an observer with you. The observer does not need to have any background in communication disorders. The observer will help you identify and sort out reactions and situational details. Speak for a minimum of two minutes for each occasion. Try to make your stuttering sound as authentic as possible. Practice a few times before you do this so that you can work on sounding authentic and realistic.

After your experience, write a brief description of each incident, including the following information:

1. The setting -- where, nature of interaction, with whom you spoke, other listeners in the vicinity, knowledge of your observer re: communication disorders (your observer is the person you brought with you).

2. The stuttering pattern you chose to use (specific primary and secondary behaviors, frequency, and attempted severity range).

3. Your inward experiences during each incident. If your attitudes and emotions changed from the first to the second experience, then describe those changes.

4. Your reactions to the situations.

5. The reactions, behaviors, attitudes, of the individual with whom you spoke. This is what your observer needs to help you sort through.

6. What you learned from this assignment.

7. Any other information you care to share.

Although the written product for this assignment will not be very extensive, it requires substantial mental preparation and mustering of courage, hence the hefty point value.

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Reflection gives us a chance to step back from a situation, encounter, or event and ponder our personal experience with that event.  "Personal" in this case, means inward, and includes thoughts, feelings, memories, insights, perceptions, etc.  Reflection invites us to move beyond the cognitive and intellectual realms, into the realms of insight, intuition, awareness, and wisdom.  Reflection leads us to some deeper level of understanding; deeper understanding allows us to find meaning in the situation/event.  A useful question to ask oneself in reflection is:  How has this experience changed me?

You will need to write three (3) reflection papers during this course. Use the videos and the readings to spark your reflections. The door is wide open for how to approach these papers. That said, reflection has the most value when we keep the topic of focus narrow. For each paper, choose one issue that the reading and/or video evoked in your mind. You may see parallels between something that comes up in a video and one of the readings.  You may see a theme running through several of the readings or videos. You may have had a personal or clinical experience very similar to one described by a speaker, a classmate, or an author.

Begin your paper with a clear description of what you are reflecting on; e.g. title of the article or video, statement of a speaker, situation in a video. Then provide a clear statement of the issue, theme, or notion that you plan to address in your paper. Then, go nuts.

These papers do not need to be long and involved. They will probably run about 2 typed, double spaced pages. Pay attention to organization, clarity, writing style, and writing mechanics. Include references when appropriate.

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This paper will give you a chance to explain what you understand about the cause of stuttering and how you currently put all of the pieces together. This paper represents what you know and understand about the cause of stuttering now. You may change your mind over the years. 

Begin by sorting through all of the information that we discussed on the cause(s) of stuttering and organizing this information in a way that makes sense to you.  Take the pieces that make the most sense to you and have plausible evidence behind them, and put them together into a unified theory to explain what predisposes, precipitates, and perpetuates stuttering. Your unified theory of the cause of stuttering needs to account for the basic facts of stuttering, such as the time of onset, high recovery rate, sex ratio, developmental progression, and existence in a variety of cultures around the world. Put your information together in such a way that you can use it to talk to people about stuttering and they will be able to understand what you are saying.

Your grade will be based on the plausibility of your arguments, the evidence that you provide, how you account for the facts of stuttering, as well as the organization, clarity and accuracy of your writing. Include a reference list and use proper APA style guidelines for formatting the paper and the references. This paper will probably run about 5-6 typed, double-spaced pages.

The purpose of this assignment is to investigate how stuttering and people who stutter (PWS) are portrayed in popular North American culture - this includes the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. To begin, choose a film, TV series, cartoon series, or work of fiction that has a character who stutters. Watch/read that piece with an eye toward the person who stutters, making note of the following:

1. Who is the character who stutters and what role does this person play in the piece (major/minor character? how integral to the plot?)

2. Describe how this character's stuttering is portrayed with respect to type, frequency, severity, and presence of secondary characteristics. Then describe how the character is portrayed as a person, including physical appearance, personality, social skills, psychological health, etc.

3. How do others respond to the character's stuttering? How do others treat the person who stutters? Be sure to provide descriptive evidence here.

4. How does the stuttering contribute to the story? (e.g. could the same character have the same effect in the story if he/she did not stutter?) Use descriptive evidence from the work to support your opinion here.

5. What myths and stereotypes about stuttering come through in this work? You'll have to think about this. The beliefs probably won't be stated directly or obviously. How are those beliefs handled, i.e. does the author/director seem to buy into them and perpetuate them, or try to dispel them? Be sure to provide descriptive evidence here, too. This is the left ventricle of the heart of your analysis and critique. Spend a lot of brain cells on this part.

6. Overall, how realistic, respectful, and enlightened does the view of stuttering and people who stutter seem in this piece? Be sure to provide descriptive evidence here, too. This is where you draw connections between what you have learned in this course and what you see in your chosen piece of work. This is the right ventricle of the heart of your analysis and critique. Spend some more brain cells on this part.

7. What take-home message about stuttering did you get from this piece? To answer this question, put yourself in the position of the average person who knows nothing about stuttering. After seeing this movie or reading this book, what would you think, know, believe, about stuttering and people who stutter? Think of this question as the summary and conclusion of your paper.

8. If you watched the piece with other people, ask them what they thought of the character who stutters. If you know of people who saw/read the piece but not with you, then ask them what they thought of the character who stutters. Incorporate their comments into your paper. You may be able to use this opportunity as a teachable moment and educate your friends about stuttering.

Before you write your review and analysis of the piece, try to find some movie/book reviews and see what professional critics said about the piece. Also, try to find any reviews or statements by stuttering organizations or by PWS. One way to gather opinions from people who stutter may be to get involved in a blog or other social networking venue. On the Stuttering Home Page, Judy Kuster has a list of several films, TV series, and other media that have a character who stutters. For some of these items, she has links to reviews by people who stutter. In addition, Jeffery Johnson has an article in the Journal of Popular Culture about how stuttering is portrayed in films. He mentions some of the films in Kuster's list, and he has very insightful ideas about the common themes that emerge when a character who stutters appears. Be sure to cite this article properly in your paper.

Be sure to provide a reference list, including a complete citation for the work that you reviewed for this project. Use proper referencing and citing in the text for the sources of the information about stuttering that you present. Use proper referencing and citing in the text for Johnson's article, too. Same expectations as with previous assignments apply for writing skills and APA conventions, and references.    Papers will probably run about 6 typed, double-spaced pages.

Review the expectations for written papers.

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Chapter reviews will work a little differently than in previous courses. At the end of each chapter, the authors pose some questions for thinking and discussing. The chapter reviews will utilize these questions. Your response to each question will be in the neighborhood of 2-4 paragraphs, depending on the depth of the question. The chapters, suitable questions, and due dates appear in the table below.

Remember, the 2 purposes of these reviews are: 1) to give you a concrete motivation to read the textbook, and 2) to demonstrate that you understand what you read. When you lift passages directly out of the chapter and use the author's words without crediting the author, you are not demonstrating what you understand and you will lose points. Worse, you are actually plagiarizing the authors. Check out the link to common examples of things that students do and pay closer attention to these behaviors. This page also has some tips for how to use quotations appropriately and how to paraphrase another author.

Chapter	Questions	Due Date
Chapter 1	Any 3 questions
Chapter 2	Question 1 OR any 2 other questions
Chapter 3	Any 2 questions
Chapter 4	Any 3 questions
Chapter 15	Any 2 questions out of this group: 1, 3, 5, 7
Chapter 5	Any 2 questions out of this group: 1, 2, 3, 5
Chapter 6	Any 2 questions
Chapter 7	Any 2 questions
Unit IX	Relate results of your 2 surveys to the readings

 

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©2012Cindy S. Spillers. For concerns about this course contact the instructor at cspiller@d.umn.edu