Speaking steps: plan and practice situations, one step at a time

How to use it

1. Read Before you start. It sums up what ASHA and the Stuttering Foundation say, and what this worksheet does and does not do.
2. Choose Add a step. Write a speaking situation in your own words. Give it a 0 to 10 rating of how hard it feels, if you want to. Tick anything you would like to try, or write your own words. The worksheet never suggests a step.
3. Open My steps to see your steps in the order of your ratings. Show the easiest first or the hardest first. Move up and Move down change the order of steps that have the same rating.
4. When you try a step, open Attempts and write down what happened: where you were, how comfortable you felt from 0 to 10, whether you avoided something you wanted to say, what you did, and what you would do next time. Every box except the date is optional.
5. Under Print and share, print the worksheet, copy it as text, or download two files for a spreadsheet. Switch on Hide what I wrote on screen at any time to show the word Hidden in place of your words.

Good to know

• This worksheet is not therapy and it is not medical advice. It works best alongside a speech-language pathologist who knows you. It never tells you how to speak, never sets a goal for how you speak, and never scores you. If you feel unsafe, or you might hurt yourself or someone else, go to Crisis help now.
• The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) says that treatment for school-age children, adolescents and adults is focused on increasing effective and efficient communication, increasing acceptance and openness with stuttering, reducing secondary behaviors and minimizing avoidances, and increasing self-confidence and self-efficacy. It says that treatment is highly individualized, and that increasing fluency may not be a goal for an adult. Our own note, not ASHA's: this worksheet has no fluency goal, and it never counts stutters or judges how you speak.
• ASHA describes several approaches, including speech modification, stuttering modification, desensitization, cognitive restructuring, self-disclosure and support groups. It describes desensitization as strategies that help speakers systematically desensitize themselves to their fears, and self-disclosure as communicating to others information that reveals one's identity as a person who stutters. It also describes avoidance reduction therapy, whose goal is to decrease fear of stuttering that leads to struggle. This worksheet does not teach or recommend any of these approaches. A speech-language pathologist can tell you which, if any, might fit you.
• The choices under What would I like to try are examples written for this worksheet. They are not a list from ASHA or from any other source, and they are not advice. Use Something else, in your own words, for anything that fits you better. Whether to try a step, and what to try, is always your choice.
• The Stuttering Foundation tells people who are talking with someone who stutters not to make remarks like "Slow down", "Take a breath" or "Relax", and says that such simplistic advice can be felt as demeaning and is not helpful. This worksheet never gives that kind of advice. If you want to plan what to tell someone about how they can help you, the Conversation script builder can help.
• The 0 to 10 rating of how hard a step feels is your own. This worksheet only uses it to put your steps in order. It does not decide what your numbers mean, and it does not treat a lower number as a goal. Comfort in an attempt is also your own rating from 0 to 10, where 10 is very comfortable. The two ratings are different scales.
• Order: the list is always sorted by your ratings, and you choose whether the easiest or the hardest step comes first. Move up and Move down only work between steps with the same rating. Steps with no rating come last. Steps you set aside are listed apart, and you can bring them back at any time.
• Attempts show only what you write. The worksheet does not add them up, score them, compare them or say whether an attempt went well. The table lists your own numbers and choices in date order. You decide when a step has been worked on enough.
• Hide what I wrote on screen shows the word Hidden in place of your words, so you can open the worksheet near other people. The forms show your words while you type. Print, Copy and the files always include what you wrote. Hiding is not a lock. Anyone who can use this browser on this device can switch it off.
• Limits: 40 steps, 200 attempts for each step, 200 characters for each step, 1,000 characters for step notes, 200 characters for where and with whom, 100 characters for your own words under What would I like to try, 500 characters for each other text box in an attempt. Ratings are whole numbers from 0 to 10. Everything is saved in this browser only. Clearing your browser data erases it, so print or copy anything you need to keep.
• Print, Copy and the files list attempts oldest first. Include my notes controls the Notes boxes only. In the files, text that starts with = + - or @ gets an apostrophe in front, so that a spreadsheet does not run it as a formula.
• If keeping a worksheet starts to feel like something you must do, or it makes things harder, take a break from it and tell your speech-language pathologist or someone you trust.

Where this comes from

• ASHA says treatment for school-age children, adolescents and adults is focused on increasing effective and efficient communication, increasing acceptance and openness with stuttering, reducing secondary behaviors and minimizing avoidances, and increasing self-confidence and self-efficacy. It says treatment is highly individualized, and describes approaches that include desensitization, self-disclosure, support and avoidance reduction: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Stuttering, Cluttering, and Fluency (Practice Portal)
• The Stuttering Foundation advises people not to make remarks like "Slow down," "Take a breath," or "Relax," because such simplistic advice can be felt as demeaning and is not helpful: Stuttering Foundation: 6 Tips for Speaking With Someone Who Stutters
• The stuttering guide
• The Resources page
• Crisis help

More tools

General support only. These tools are not medical, legal or diagnostic advice, and they do not replace professional help. If you are in crisis, go to Crisis help.