In 2003, Fairfax County Public School's (FCPS) staff requested a rubric for each of the four traditional areas of speech pathology - articulations, voice, language, and fluency. I was the fluency resource clinician in the FCPS at the time and volunteered to do the fluency rubrics. This coincided with the development of the CALMS Rating Scale by Healey, Scott-Trautman, and Susca in 2002. I was impressed by the scope of the CALMS and used it, with permission, as the basis for the rubrics on stuttering that are below. These rubrics, for cognitive, affective, linguistic, motor, and social aspects of stuttering are also published in FCPS's "RE DO IT Book," the resource handbook for SLP's in the Fairfax County VA Public Schools.

I often use these rubrics early in the therapy process with teens and adults to help them increase their awareness of the complex nature of stuttering. It seems to help him/her and me begin to understand how many factors there are, how they might interact to cause problems, and how he/she is good at some and have more difficulty with others. The rubrics often give me a better idea of the areas that the teen/adult feels he/she needs to focus on first in therapy. This exercise is an eye opener for many and aids me in knowing what aspects my client feels are most important to him/her. Pre and post, or within treatment reviews can help the SLP show progress to support EBP. As the client's answers move to the right in each category, improvement can be shown. We can also see what we still need to work on.

You can post Questions/comments about the above paper to the author before October 22, 2007.