"LIVE" Online Learning

Session 1 Friday 6th March 2026, 11.00am-2.30pm NZDT

Session 2 Friday 13th March 2026, 11.00am-2.30pm NZDT

The session will be “LIVE” and will not be recorded at the request of the presenter.

This 7-hr online Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event is intended for Speech-Language Therapists/Speech Pathologists interested in the concerns of clients who stutter, clutter, and/or have atypical disfluency plus other diagnoses. Speech-Language Therapists/Speech Pathologists working with Autistic individuals and individuals with an ADHD diagnosis are encouraged to attend given the unique fluency challenges these populations encounter compared to individuals who stutter or clutter who have no other additional co-occurring diagnoses.

Registration and Online Learning Details

Single registration cost is for each individual, not per site. Zoom will be used to deliver the training with “meeting room” details emailed to participants prior to the event. You will need to download Zoom software to your computer. A webcam and inbuilt microphone on your computer is also preferable so you can fully participate.

Readings and Resources

Recommended readings and resources will be shared 1-2 weeks before the event.

Workshop Content

This two-part course will cover assessment and treatment for clients who stutter, clutter, and/or have atypical disfluency plus other diagnoses. The first part of the course will highlight the impact of concomitant diagnoses, such as Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, upon diagnosis and treatment. Strategies will be presented for clinical management of fluency disorders in the context of needs of these specific populations. Various techniques and resources will be provided that can immediately be implemented into practice. How to translate existing evidence regarding atypical disfluencies into practice will also be discussed. A case-based approach will be presented.

The second part of the course will focus specifically on cluttering. Strategies for differential diagnosis, assessment and treatment will be presented. Managing all aspects of cluttering will be addressed: building awareness and buy-in to the process, designing intervention that fosters generalization, affective and cognitive components, how verbal diversity applies to cluttering, differences in first person perspective of cluttering and stuttering and the impact on treatment decision, treatment strategies for syntactic symptoms, self-advocacy and determining readiness for change. Case examples will be presented throughout.

Learning Objectives

Part 1 - Fluency Plus:

Learner Outcome 1: State 2 strategies for differentiating symptoms of fluency disorders from symptoms of Autism and ADHD
Learner Outcome 2: State two strategies for management of fluency challenges in Autism
Learner Outcome 3: State two strategies for management of executive function challenges as they intersect with fluency treatment.
Learner Outcome 4: State two treatment approaches to atypical disfluencies

Part 2 - Cluttering:

Learner Outcome 1: State 3 strategies for differential diagnosis of cluttering, stuttering, atypical disfluency, and covert stuttering
Learner Outcome 2: State two strategies for differential diagnosis of cluttering features from other concomitant disorders
Learner Outcome 3: State two strategies for holistic treatment of cluttering
Learner Outcome 4: State two differences between stuttering and cluttering from the first-person perspective

About Dr Kathleen Scaler-Scott

Dr Kathleen Scaler-Scott is a practicing speech-language pathologist, ASHA Fellow, Board Certified Specialist in Stuttering, Cluttering and Fluency, and Professor of Speech-Language Pathology at Misericordia University in Dallas, PA, USA. She has been a practicing clinician for over 30 years in hospital, school, and private practice settings. Dr. Scaler Scott received the Deso Weiss Award for Excellence in the field of cluttering and the Professional of the Year Award from the National Stuttering Association. She is author of Fluency Plus: Managing Fluency Disorders in Individuals with Multiple Diagnoses, and has conducted and published quantitative and qualitative research studies in the areas of cluttering, atypical disfluency, autism and learning differences.