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CARE Assessment

Get the CARE Assessment

The Strength-Based, Holistic Stuttering Assessment Tool.
We can begin to instill CARE in every exchange, starting with the ways in which we evaluate individuals who stutter.

Inside The Assessment:
What To Expect

The Blank Center CARE Model™ Assessment is a strengths-based assessment comprised of four sections, with each section assessing the child’s knowledge and skills across the four pillars of the Blank Center CARETM Model: Communication, Advocacy, Resiliency, and Education. The CARE Assessment for School-age Children, intended to be used with children enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade (approximately ages 5-18), includes a Child Form, a Caregiver Proxy Form, and an Administration and Scoring Form. Assessment activities include free response questions, situational communication activities, ratings of overall as well as situational communication competence, as well as close-ended questionnaires.

This holistic assessment tool will provide baseline scores and data within each component of the model, as well as the Total CARE Score, to measure and monitor individual progress and to establish strength-based goals for treatment. Application of the CARE Model, including assessment, does not include measurement of frequency or ‘ease’ of stuttering as a baseline or as a reflection of therapeutic change.

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Ladies sit in conversation
assessment product spread
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What Makes the Blank Center CARE Model™ a Distinct Approach to Assessment

How this assessment differs from others

  1. No measurement of stuttering for consideration as any direct, indirect, or “natural byproduct” of increased communication or reduced avoidance
  2. No attempts to modify stuttering or increase fluency directly or indirectly
  3. No discussion or positive reference to unintended modification of moments of stuttering or non-targeted increases in fluency
  4. Explicit understanding that any attempts to modify stuttering (reducing tension/”struggle”), conceal stuttering, or increase fluency (facilitating “smooth speech”) will compromise effective communication
  5. Directly teaches children as young as age 3 about stuttering and how to share with others about their stuttering to promote agency and equip children for communication opportunities that occur without caregivers nearby
  6. Support caregivers and other stakeholders to empower their children to communicate and advocate for themselves independently as early as possible
  7. Facilitation of mindfulness, acceptance, and self-compassion to foster resilience in the face of stigma, discrimination, and the pressures of fluency conformity
boy speaking into microphone
boy speaking into microphone
lady speaking into microphone

Bundle with the CARE Manual: Implement Whole-Person CARE and Strengthen Individuals in Achieving their Communication, Advocacy, Resiliency, and Education Goals

Pair the CARE Assessment with the Blank Center CARETM Model: Application for School-age Children who Stutter to develop a comprehensive treatment plan.

In our CARE Manual, you’ll find functional outcomes and short-term goals, sample therapy activities, therapy supplements, resources for families and other supporting stakeholders in the child’s life that directly align with each section of the CARE Assessment.

In implementing whole-person CARE, you will not only be helping to empower individuals who stutter to Dream. Speak. Live.® in your setting, you will also be supporting the Blank Center’s mission to end stigmatization on a global scale.

CARE Model Rationale

The Blank Center CARE ModelTM offers a distinct, non-ableist approach to stuttering treatment that rests on the evidence-based understanding that when children, teens, and adults…

  1. learn communication is not defined or limited by fluency,
  2. learn to share about their stuttering meaningfully,
  3. develop the resiliency needed to navigate adversity, and
  4. are knowledgeable about stuttering, they are empowered to Dream. Speak. Live.®

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