Phone Calls with Fluency Tools
Telephone hierarchy -- the situation most teens who stutter avoid hardest and longest.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Work up the list rather than picking. Asking a shop's closing time is low stakes and anonymous; saying your own name is much harder, because names are the classic feared word and there is no synonym. The pseudo-stutter card is the most therapeutic item on the board — stuttering on purpose in a real call removes the fear of it happening by accident. Twenty minutes and one real call is a session.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentThe student uses their fluency technique on their own. Listen without reminding.Log as correct
- Visual reminderPoint to the picture or card that stands for the technique.Log as cued
- Verbal reminderSay a short reminder, such as 'Use your smooth speech.'Log as cued
- ModelSay it yourself using the technique; the student copies, then tries the card again.Log as cued
Adjust it
Go back to shorter turns: single words or two-word phrases.
Move to longer turns, a new listener, or a little time pressure.
Matching IEP goal
Student will use their fluency technique in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual reminder.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight telephone tasks with a fluency tool attached: call a store and ask what time they close, using an easy onset on the first word; say your own name on the phone with a gentle start; leave a voicemail with a planned pause between your name and your number; order takeout by phone instead of by app; make a call and pseudo-stutter once on purpose; rate the call — did you use a tool, avoid a word, or both.
What to listen for
Listen to the self-rating. Did you use a tool, avoid a word, or both is the question that surfaces what actually happened, and students routinely report a successful call that involved substituting three words. Watch which calls get postponed week after week — that avoidance is the finding, not the failure.
Carrying it home
Every household makes calls. Handing over one a week — the takeaway order, the appointment confirmation — is a real rung on the ladder and it happens anyway.
What's in this activity
- Call a store and ask what time they close. Use an easy onset on the first word.
- Say your own name on the phone with a gentle start.
- Leave a voicemail with a planned pause between your name and your number.
- Call to ask whether a job application is still open.
- Order takeout by phone instead of by app.
- Call and ask for directions to an address.
- Make a call and pseudo-stutter once on purpose.
- Rate the call: did you use a tool, avoid a word, or both?
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade, where phone avoidance is well established and consequential.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight tasks are free to use.
- Why stutter on purpose?
- Because it removes the fear of it happening. A student who has stuttered deliberately on a real call, and found that the call still worked, has learned something no amount of technique practice teaches.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.