stuttering - summary of replies

[Cecile De Cat]

Dear all

Please find below a brief summary of the replies I got to my question
about the sudden stuttering of a 2;9 year old.

Thanks to 
Jasone Cenoz
Nan Bernstein Ratner
elena lieven
miquel serra
Sara Howard
Jacqueline Van Kampen
Margot Rozendaal
Zena Eisenberg
Mihaela Pirvulescu
Marilyn Nippold
Carolyn Chaney
David Ward
Ed Conture
Melanie Schuele

- Any child for whom there is any concern/anxiety regarding fluency
(either the child's or the parent's/carer's concern) should be referred
for an assessment by a speech and language therapist, who can provide
information, advice and a professional opinion on what kind of
nonfluency/dysfluency appears to be presenting.  A good source of
information on different types of dysfluency is the website
of the British Stamming Association: http://www.stammering.org/

- Stuttering will consist of, minimally, part-word repetitions, of more
than one iteration per incident, accompanied most typically by
prolongation of vowels, liquids, glides and syllabic consonants, and
most tellingly, if it is stuttering, blocks, which are fixations in
which the child appears "frozen" prior to, or during the articulation of
a segment. It is often accompanied by signs of struggle or tension, but
not necessarily awareness. If that is what the child demonstrates, it is
stuttering. The good news is that 80% of this stuff goes away. We now
have longitudinal studies that show this and also list some predictors
for recovery.

- The child should be allowed to stutter and to finish his/her sentences
without being interrupted or corrected. The stuttering seems to be a
neurological development where one aspect of language learning races
ahead of the other. 

- Stuttering usually has its onset at the time you mention (2;9). 80% of
it goes away without intervention, although both families and children
may be disturbed by its features before it goes away. Risk factors for
continued stuttering include a family history of chronic stuttering.
- In many cases it is just part of the process of language development
and it disappears naturally.

- Most children who stutter have language development within normal
limits. Stuttering does not impact/restrict their language development.
If the child truly is stuttering and continues to do so, I would advise
that you contact a speech-language pathologist who is well-trained in
the Lidcombe Program for early stuttering. 

- Ignoring the problem is ignoring the feelings and fears that the young
child may have about the frustrating events that accompany speaking. 
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. 

- A technical book on early stuttering is the recent book by Ehud Yairi
and Nicoline Ambrose; there are may other more consumer-oriented
materials at the Stuttering Foundation of America website, and a wealth
of information (not always carefully sorted, but usually quite reliable,
as the site is run by a knowledgable speech-language pathologist) at the
StutteringHomePage.com

- I would contact the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
for any advice leaflets on the topic (Google it to find the web
address), and also check out http://www.stammeringcentre.org/s-index for
information.  This site has further links to other helpful
organisations.




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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     
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