How to Stop Stuttering: Help Your Child Become Fluent in Speech
How to stop stuttering? Can I help my child to speak fluently?
What are the different types of stuttering or stuttering that I should be aware of?
What are good practices to help my child stop stuttering?
As a parent, what should I know to help my child gain more confidence to stop stuttering?
If you are looking for help on how to help your child stop stuttering, read on to find the answers to the most frequently asked questions. Our speech pathologist / speech therapist explains the most common types of stuttering and what to do to help your child achieve fluency in speech.
There are 3 types of stuttering or stuttering, in which your child knows what he wants to say but cannot say it fluently:
1. repetition of sound or sounds: “III I want chocolate! “
2. extension: “Where is the ball? “
3.blocking: (the sound is blocked, your child can’t get the sound out at all … – and then he has to force the sound): “—– I have it. “
How to stop stuttering with speech therapy techniques:
1.increase the frequency of fluent speech or behavior that is incompatible with stuttering, and
2.Reduce factors associated with stuttering (such as quitting smoking: for example, increasing chewing gum, reducing factors associated with smoking)
Let’s start with the list of what not to do:
1. Don’t pretend there is no problem. If your child has difficulty saying something, they would be the first to know it on some level (even if they don’t articulate it) and people who don’t talk about their difficulty may suggest that it is taboo. Make it acceptable to talk about stuttering.
2. Don’t ask your child to ‘take a deep breath’.
Suggestions like that can sometimes disrupt your child’s natural respiratory coordination of speech. Use more general suggestions like “Take your time” and allow your child to manage his speech on his own. More importantly, action speaks louder than words – show with your action and body language that you are ready to take your time to listens.
3. Don’t interrupt your child. Be supportive and helpful if needed, but don’t interrupt your child.
Now, let’s talk about the things you need to do:
1. Have a way of talking about the concept of fluency in a descriptive and non-judgmental way. You can’t change a behavior if you can’t identify or recognize it. Some words you can use are ‘soft’, ‘irregular speech’, ‘stuck’, ‘easy to say’, ‘nice and soft’, etc.
2. Introduce the concept of different shapes to speak.
Encourage your child to observe different ways of talking about others, to understand the different descriptive words we use, and then to speak in different ways on his own. For example, softly and loudly, slowly and rapidly, a low-pitched ‘papa bear’ voice or a high-pitched ‘baby bear’ voice, speaking in a ‘harsh’, sudden, and strained manner, rather than in a ‘soft’ and gentle, talking. on. For. chop.py way. versus a ‘soft’ shape, etc. The smooth and gentle shape makes fluent speech more natural and stuttering less likely.
3. Improve your child’s general level oral motor coordination for example, with rhymes and tongue twisters. Recite them together with your child until they feel safe and then encourage them to ‘recite them in the same way’ on their own.
4. Help your child improve overall idiom competence, for example, learn more words and improve your vocabulary, learn different sentence structures to express ideas or ask questions.
5. Help your child practice long multi-syllable words, paying attention to the sounds and the accent pattern, for example, in a short one-syllable word that is the only one we stress and say ‘Bar’, but in a word like ‘banana’ we say ‘ber-Na-ner’, and we stress only the second syllable, it is ‘stressed’ or stronger, we do not say ‘Plantain’.
6. Prevention is better than correction. Prevent or prevent situations that make your child likely to stutter. If your child is overly excited, they may not know the correct word or sentence to use, they are about to use a difficult word that they may stumble upon, etc. to avoid he from stuttering for
– talking to yourself first (so you have time to catch your breath), or
– Demonstrate clear, fluent and slow speech using the correct words or sentences, or
– provide some clues by giving examples to choose from, for example, “Do you want me to press the button and then catch, or would you like to press the button and I’ll catch?”
7. Look for the positive too.
Praise examples of successful communication, for example, “Wow, did you manage to say that difficult word with ease!” “That was a very interesting story!” “What a long sentence that was!”
Give your child positive reinforcement or praise different aspects of communication; don’t judge your child’s speech solely by whether or not he stuttered. Communication and interaction are much more than that.
When in doubt, seek professional help.
Without any intervention, a child who stutters may simply get over it, or the stuttering may persist into adulthood, with repercussions on school, career, social interaction, and self-esteem.
A child may need less time to overcome stuttering, and the results are often more permanent. (Also, hopefully, kids have generally picked up less ’emotional baggage’ such as avoidance and low self-esteem.)
If you are concerned, see a speech therapist / pathologist for professional help or support for your child.