A neat picture for teaching fluent speech

A "stutter" and a preschool clutter" (not really stuttering) can be called disfluencies.

What happens during a disfluency? What are the differences between a child's fluent and disfluent utterances?

There's one picture that gives tremendous insight into this question.

THE CURVE

If you look at fluency materials online, you may come across the easy / gentle onset speech curve. It looks something like this -

The picture instructs to breathe in when the curve goes up, then start speech when the curve goes down.

It's a smart strategy.

But there's more...

If you say something right now, you may notice something about your voice. The inflection of your voice may go up then down, in a smooth curve.

You may be "talking on this curve" without realizing it.

THE CURVE IS EVERYWHERE

Say a word now.

If your word was fluent, then I’m betting that you said it "on that curve."

To illustrate … suppose you say “dog”.

You said it like the curve. Meaning….

You probably said it like this – with /d/ at the beginning, /aw/ at the middle, and /g/ at the end.

Neat, huh?

Say a phrase. Like “dog food.” You probably said two words on two curves – one for “dog” and one for “food”.

But you also said the phrase on one bigger curve. Like…

This happens for every word we speak. And, for every phrase we speak.

All people literally speak on waves.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR KIDS

Some SLPs teach kids to “slide” into their utterances.

In exactly the same way, you can teach kids to “speak on the curve.”

If you hear a disfluency, you can say something like – “can we try that again?”

Then you can make the curve motion with your hand. And you can model talking on the curve.

*Hand motion* Dog

Pause

*Hand Motion* Food.

Then you can ask the kid to repeat.

RESULTS

There is no hard scientific research on this particular tip. However, it is evidence-based practice, based on practice in the therapy room.

It can teach kids with disfluencies a foundation strategy that they can build their words on.

Plus, it’s really easy. Even the least artsy person can draw the curve above.

Wishing you smooth speaking!

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Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.