About this activity
Eight weekly challenges aimed at the part of stuttering that nobody else sees: name one word you swapped out today and say the original out loud now; name one situation you skipped this week because of speech; order the exact item you want, not the easy-to-say one; say your own name first, before anyone asks for it; use the phone once instead of texting. Fluency work that ignores avoidance leaves the most disabling part of the condition untouched.
How to use it in a session
Take one challenge a week and hold the student to it, then spend the session on what happened rather than on technique. The first two cards are the assessment — a student who cannot name a swapped word yet is not aware of their own avoidance, and awareness has to come before anything else. Say your own name first is often the hardest card here and worth saving until the student has some wins. Twenty minutes of honest debriefing beats a full session of fluency drills.
What to listen for
Listen for the difference between a stutter and a swap. A student whose speech sounds fluent because they never say a hard word is not fluent, they are constrained, and the counts that matter are avoided words and avoided situations rather than disfluencies. The filler card is the quiet one worth taking seriously: a student who counts how often they use 'um', 'like' or 'so' to delay usually finds a number that surprises them. Watch for the last card — what would you do if stuttering weren't a factor — to start generating real answers, which is when the work has moved from technique to life.
Carrying it home
Families can help most by not rescuing. Ordering for a teenager, answering the phone for them, or finishing their sentence removes the exact opportunity the challenge needs. Ask them to wait, even when waiting is uncomfortable for everyone.
Questions
- Is this instead of fluency techniques?
- Alongside them. Techniques change how a moment of stuttering goes; avoidance reduction changes how much of a life stuttering takes up, and the second is often what the student most wants.
- Do I need an account?
- No — the challenges are free to read and use with no login.
- What ages is it for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade. Avoidance is usually well established by then, and older students can reflect on it in a way younger ones often cannot.