Using Single Subject Methodology To Improve Decision-Making in Stuttering Treatment
With the proliferation of evidence-based practice and the need to quantify therapy effects, it is imperative for speech-language pathologists to adapt a systematic approach when planning therapy. In this tutorial, we describe a 5-step decision making sequence that permitted us to systematically assess our clinical assumptions about the most effective treatments for eliciting perceptually fluent speech for a client with Down syndrome. We used single subject methodology to compare the effects of 3 intervention protocols—scripting, pacing board, and intonation training—on the fluency of an adult client with Down syndrome. This case study demonstrated that scripting allowed the subject to produce the largest number of normally fluent sentences with the least amount of clinician prompting.