Preschool Stuttering

About Preschool Stuttering

Millions of Americans as well as people from all nations around the world are affected by a whole host of different speech disorders. Stuttering is extremely common with about five percent of the population having stuttering problems at some stage of their life. Of those affected only about one percent continue to stutter into adulthood.

Childhood stuttering is quite common and not something parents and teachers should be immediately concerned with. The repetition of sounds and words is a normal to some extent. It occurs naturally for many children as their language skills develop and they sometimes think faster than they can speak or have the ability to express.

Preschool stuttering is actually quite common. As a matter of fact, about twenty percent of children go through a phase of stuttering that causes their parents concern. Compare this with the one percent who stutter into adulthood and you get an idea of how concerned a parent should be for their stuttering child.

The average age for children to experience stuttering is around thirty months. This is just as most children's language skills are developing most rapidly, which explains some of the difficulty in fluency that sometimes occurs at this age. Most children who stutter only do so for three to six months, although it may return for a short period of time now and again.

How should a parent or teach respond to this preschool stuttering? It feels natural for many to encourage the child to relax or take a deep breath, or possible asking them to repeat what they said, hoping it will come out correctly the second time around. None of these are actually helpful and may actually make the stuttering worse.

The reason for this is that in all stuttering, including in adults, there is some level of anxiety involved (it gets much greater for adults). Often the child or adult might assume that someone expects them to speak quickly and this can bring on stuttering. Encouraging them to slow down or relax is simply another expectation they feel from you.

The best way to respond to stuttering (whatever the age of the stutterer) is to listen patiently and focus on what is being said and not how it's being said. Speaking slowly and with pauses to a child encourages them to speak slowly and makes it less likely that they will stutter, without you telling them to do so, as if you hope they'll finally stop stuttering.

Sometimes in childhood stuttering the child does experience some stress while stuttering. This is not so common as in older stutterers, but if you should observe it in your child, be very matter of fact, but reassuring that you know that it's sometimes hard to talk, but everyone gets stuck on words sometimes and it's perfectly okay.

If your child continues stuttering consistently for more than six months, it is a good time to see a therapist with experience in stuttering. This way your child can be monitored and you can start early intervention if it looks like he may be dealing with more stuttering ahead of him.

 

 

 

 

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Articles

• Stammering
• Early Childhood Stuttering
• Toddler Stuttering
• Speech Therapy Programs
• Preschool Stuttering
• Stuttering Medication



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