What to do if your child stutters

Stuttering, commonly known as stammering, is a type of unfluent speech with involuntary repetition, prolongation, and pauses of language, which causes difficulty in speaking and may be accompanied by emotional disorders, abnormal emotions, etc.

What are the risk factors for stuttering?

1. A family member has stuttering;

2. Speech fluency persists for more than half a year;

3. Speech fluency occurs after the age of three;

4. Other speech disorders: such as articulation disorders, etc.

What are some ways to prevent stuttering in daily life?

1. Speak slowly when talking to children. Children's language ability has not yet reached the level of adults. When adults speak too fast, it takes time for children's brains to understand and organize sentences. At this time, children may be eager to express their opinions and may stutter.

2. Give children the opportunity to speak.

3. Pay more attention to the child’s language environment. When people around the child stutter, you should be alert to the child’s stuttering.

When stuttering occurs, the first thing to do is to take the child to the hospital for a systematic examination to assess whether professional stuttering correction training is needed.

Whether you are doing stuttering correction training in the hospital or parents are correcting their children's stuttering at home, parents need to master some basic correction points:

1. Parents or other people should slow down their speech when talking to children and increase the number and duration of pauses appropriately;

2. Encourage children to express themselves and interact during conversations (commonly known as "you say one thing and I say another");

3. Increase one-on-one conversations and reduce multi-person conversations;

4. Do not interrupt children during a conversation;

5. Talk to children slowly and in a relaxed manner. Relaxation training can eliminate children's nervousness.

6. When children express their opinions or share things, we should give appropriate responses;

Children stutter when they are 2-4 years old and just starting to learn a language. It is usually temporary and normal. As they grow older, this phenomenon will gradually disappear. Parents should not make a fuss or take it too seriously. Parents' attention or criticism may aggravate stuttering. However, if children still stutter in late childhood or early school age, they should not be left alone. They should be taken to the hospital for evaluation as soon as possible and learn some professional training methods to help them recover.