Though stuttering generally requires professional help, there are many supplemental things parents can do at home to help their child overcome this relatively common problem. Here are some simple techniques suggested by the experts that may be used in connection with stuttering therapy.

Let your child know they are not alone. That famous people like James Earl Jones, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Marilyn Monroe also have a problem with stuttering.

Talk like Mister Rogers. That means slow down and speak clearly. Although many parents find this television personality’s delivery annoying, his rate of speech does closely match a child’s speech-processing abilities. Remember, your child will try to mimic how you speak. By slowing down, you are modeling a way of speaking that your child is can realistically be able to achieve.

Take the pause this encourages. Do not be too hasty in responding to a child’s comment or question. This will encourage the calm, the slow pace of conversation and make it easier for the stuttering child to keep up his end of the conversation.

Set aside a special time to chat. Life is busy for everyone these days and parents cannot always drop everything and engage in slow, measured conversation. But it will help if a child knows that he has a certain time each day when you are going to listen to him. Even if you can only set aside 5-10 minutes, this will make life seem less busy and rushed.

Let the child talk. When you set aside some time to be with your child, let the child direct the conversation. Children who are going through a tough period may have a lot of feelings and thoughts that have gone unexpressed. It can really be magical if you create an environment where the child feels free to talk about feelings and where all feelings are considered okay and normal.

Use the saltshaker trick. A child who stutters may get shut out of fast-paced dinner conversations. One way to make things easier is to give dinner-table talk a special structure. Use a saltshaker that is passed around the table. If you had the saltshaker, it is your turn to talk and no one can interrupt you. This kind of structure is good for the stutterer because he does not feel he always has to struggle to get a word in.

Avoid talking over the child’s utterance. Though you sometimes may be tempted to finish your child’s long, labored sentences, complete his thoughts or interrupt him in a rush to get the conversation moving, let him finish. Otherwise you could possibly make his stuttering worse.

Do not be so picky. Kids who stutter need to know that they do not have to be perfect, that they can make mistakes and still be okay. Many of these children worry more about how they talk than what they say.

Let speaking skills come naturally. Parents who are constantly correcting speech mistakes or stressing verbal skills can worsen their child’s stuttering problems. ‘Kids will develop language and speech skills on their own just by hearing conversation.

Make the teacher your ally. It is important that your child’s teacher understand how to handle speech problems. Do not ask the teacher to excuse your child from giving oral reports, volunteering answers in class and reading aloud. These are all difficult things for the stuttering child. Your child may be willing to strike a deal with the teacher that he’s only called on when his hand is up, so his good days can be taken advantage of and his bad days forgiven.

Tags: Stuttering, stuttering therapy

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.