stuttering

[Carolyn Chaney]

Hi Cecile,

I have had some experience with stuttering in young children,  
including my own son, who began to have secondary symptoms of  
stuttering (such as eye-blinks) almost immediately.  I have found  
that the old notions that this should be ignored and it will go away  
can be very harmful, because even a two-year-old realizes that  
something is going very wrong.  Ignoring the problem is ignoring the  
feelings and fears that the young child may have about the  
frustrating events that accompany speaking.  I once treated two  
preschool children, one whose Dad was certain that chiropractic  
solutions would be best, and the other whose Mom was happy to talk  
openly with her son about his feelings about all kinds of things.   
Guess which boy recovered?

First, I recommend that parents acknowledge to the child that talking  
is hard right now.  Reassurance is also important.  I told my two- 
year-old that he was learning so many new words that sometimes they  
wanted to come all at once.  I told him that I was sure that he was  
going to be just fine, that this was just a normal stage in his  
development and that we had plenty of time to talk and listen, no  
need to rush.  (Stuttering often worsens in times of excitement,  
stress, etc).  I also nipped those secondary symptoms in the bud by  
telling him that blinking his eyes or tapping his face would not help  
and that we just needed to try to talk calmly.  Extra patience and  
open communication were the charms that worked for my son Brian (now  
age 25 and a verbal charmer).

Second, a consultation with a good speech/language pathologist who  
has experience with childhood stuttering would be a fine idea.  Some  
children do recover spontaneously (as did my son), and others go on  
to stutter.  A good therapist can be a great help.

Regards,

Carolyn Chaney


On Jun 12, 2007, at 1:57 AM, Cecile De Cat wrote:

> Hello
>
> A little 2;9 year-old I know has suddenly started stuttering, for no
> apparent reason.  His language development had until then been  
> 'normal'
> and had very good elocution until last month.  His stuttering is now
> quite pervasive.
>
> I would be most grateful for any information regarding the following
> questions (references to publications would be most welcome too):
>
> - Has there been any study showing that stuttering could have an  
> impact
> on language development?
> - What is known about the cause of stuttering?
> - Could any of you advice on what to do to help him out of it?  Is
> speech therapy usually sufficient?
>
> Many thanks in advance
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Cecile De Cat
>
>
> -- 
> ********************************************************************
> Dr. Cecile De Cat   http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~lnpcd/
>
> Dpt of Linguistics & Phonetics   http://www.leeds.ac.uk/linguistics/
> School of Modern Languages and Cultures
> University of Leeds - LS2 9JT - UK
> Tel: 0113 34 33 555     Fax: 0113 34 33 566
> *********************************************************************

Carolyn Chaney
cchaney at sfsu.edu

> "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious  
> life?"
>  	--Mary Oliver
>


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