Why Is My Child Stuttering ?

Many children in toddling stage and the age of pre-school may come across with the problem of stutter. In the stages of learning to talk, children may repeat some sounds or mispronounce some words. Stuttering reaches its peak when the child is excited, tired or stressed. Mostly children overcome this difficulty in the stages of growth and they become fluent speakers when they get older. However, this may become the major cause of worry for parents if the difficulty continues even after the child gets older.

Causes: Though the root cause of stutter in some children is difficult to find, genetic is the major contributor for stutter. This difficulty will be common for children who are under the pressure or stress. Sometimes toddlers start stuttering suddenly. It is generally estimated that around 20% children have stutter in one form or another. During the course of time, the children will gradually improve their talking skills. If the disorder doesn’t cure by itself, the parents should help their children to get out of this problem.

How to overcome Stuttering?

You should keep in mind that your objective is to help your child to speak fluently. So, you or your family members or anybody relating to your child should not interrupt him/her while he/she is speaking. If you ask them to repeat some words or try to correct the words, he may become more conscious and tensed. This may create negative impact on the child. Your conversation with your child must be slow and clear and you should give them adequate time to complete what they are trying to tell. Communication with your child is most important. You should speak to him/her about anything and everything which are interesting to them. You can ask them to narrate the things they are doing or ask them to read books loudly. You should avoid or minimise the stressful situations unless stutter will become worse.

Stuttering of your child may worry you, but you should not show it on your face. You should always encourage them when they talk and should praise them when they do something good. This will help to increase their confidence level.

If all your efforts to solve the problem of stuttering in your child does not work, you should seek the advice of a speech-language therapist. He can find out if there is any speech disorder in your child and how to correct it. The consulting with speech therapist should be done in an informal way, otherwise it will create anxiety in the child. The speech therapist can also advice you about how to approach children with speech disorders.

Parents can positively influence their children. In this regard, Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy, written by Phillip J Robert will give detailed information on how parents can influence their children positively.