How to Help Children with Stuttering Problems

You may have recently discovered that your child has a problem with stuttering. If this is the case you may be concerned about your other children who may be younger imitating this stuttering. You definitely have nothing to worry about there since that is not true. Also it will comfort you to know that just because your child may stutter a little it does not mean that they have a low IQ or that they are less intelligent than those that do not stutter. This just is not true. Some children can recover from stuttering all by themselves especially if this is a problem that is noticed when they are quite young. But doctors do caution that it is somewhat difficult to predict when a child will recover. Some may need more help than others, so patience is definitely very important.

Your child’s doctor will probably recommend that you get some type of therapy for your child. Therapy is usually broken up into two aspects. One teaches your child to be less fearful, and a little more objective about their stuttering problem. The other is to work directly on the stuttering problem. There are several approaches that your doctor may try. One is to teach your child to talk differently, and the other is to teach them to stutter in a different way. That probably sounds a little weird to you, but it is a technique that has worked for many years. What the doctor will do is teach your child to modify the way they stutter, which will resemble a more normal way of speech. There are also new techniques that are created on a daily basis, so you should be very open to trying something new.

In between your child’s therapy sessions there are several things that you can do as parents to help him or her learn to handle various speaking situations. The one thing you need to teach them is to not try to hide the fact that they stutter. The more they try to conceal their speaking problem the worse it will sound. They need to learn to relax and just let the words flow out of their mouth in a very natural way. The one thing that you do not want to do is constantly tell them to take their time, or speak slower. Just listen to them and let them learn to work through it themselves. It would be a lot more embarrassing for them if you continuously try to correct them. Just try to keep in mind that some times in order to help someone who stutters you have to not help them. There are many additional websites with resources and information that you may find useful, such as: www.mankato.msus.edu, www.nidcd.nih.gov, www.stuttersfa.org, kidshealth.org, http://www.speecheasy.com