Childhood stuttering can leave young kids feeling frustrated, nervous and self-conscious. Attending speech/stuttering therapy sometimes reinforces the idea that they are somehow “different” or “defective.” They may truly want to read, communicate their thoughts and feel confident, but their occasional problem with stuttering undermines their every move. Parents face a different set of challenges when dealing with child stuttering. They may be conflicted between seeking out early intervention and letting the problem disappear on its own. They may also suffer from some sort of misguided guilt, mistakenly believing that they must be bad parents to produce a child who stutters.

Stammering stuttering is a common type of disfluency that most kids have at some point while growing up and learning their words. Some stuttering in childhood is in the form of stop-and-go speak patterns or periods of quick speech followed by breathlessness. Their little brains seem to be working much faster than their mouths, causing a hodge-podge of verbiage to come spilling out. Some children may begin to stutter in nerve-wracking situations, such as before auditioning for a play, when asking someone on a date or if caught in a lie. Other times, a person who stutters may interject too many “ums,” “likes” or “uhs.” Usually, the stuttering speech disorder clears up or only emerges on rare occasion. However, a child who stutters for more than a few months may be in need of greater attention.

Normal developmental stuttering is common for about 90% of children, but true stuttering only occurs in about 1% of all cases. Parents can identify true child stuttering if they hear their child repeating words/sounds/syllables, uttering hard-to-discern sentences, talking slowly with a number of pauses, speaking at an uneven rate, stuttering excessively when tired or stressed, or avoiding speech entirely in reaction to a stutter. If the child does not show marked improvement within 1 to 2 months, then parents should intervene with some sort of speech therapy.

At home, parents can encourage an end to child stuttering by listening carefully and patiently to what the child is trying to say. Parents should never interject the predicted words the child is attempting to pronounce, or command the child to “speak clearly” or “slow down.” Household rules should be that everyone waits for each other to finish speaking before saying something, which will take some of the fast-talking pressure off the child. Another rule should be that no one is allowed to tease the child who has the problem stutter, as this will undermine his or her confidence. Most importantly, the child must feel loved and accepted, as this will balance out the lost esteem and self-consciousness that come along with stuttering.

Jeremy Larson is a foremost expert in finding acid reflux remedy field. His work has been extensively published in various online publications in the areas of medications for acid reflux. For more information on the treatment, visit remedyforacidreflux.com.

Tagged with: • • • •

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!