Stuttering therapy for young children

Stuttering is a problem that tends to occur in the childhood mostly, and according to some statistical records, approximately 5 % of children are affected by this speech impediment problem at some point of their childhood, usually around the age of 3. Still, the greatest majority of children recover from this problem successfully after a year or two and either no treatment is necessary for them, or some minimal treatment needs to be involved. This means that they practically outgrow the problem on their own. However, if stuttering appears later in childhood, the chances of successful recovery are not that high. This is why it is important that the parents visit and consult a doctor even if they are not sure their child has this speech problem.

More about stuttering therapy for children

The therapy primarily depends on the age of the child in question, although other factors influence it as well. Some of them are the nature of the problem and the level of concern of the child itself, as well as of its parents. More than one form of stuttering therapy is available for children with this problem, but the greatest number of parents usually starts with a speech therapist and the main reason for that is the fact that it is free. Even though the so-called easy speech or smooth speech modeling is employed, the children who are too young will not receive direct instruction in speech as older children will.

Parents also need to be educated and they also need counseling in order to learn how to deal with the problem of their child and how to help them as much as possible. They are usually not aware of how helpful they can be and how much they can facilitate fluency of their child until they themselves go through this part of therapy.

It is important to know how to deal with the problem in question, as well as it is important to talk about it, though not in the way that the child will realize that it is something that does not have to be changed. The child should certainly not feel ashamed because of stuttering, but it is important that it does not get the impression that stuttering is okay. This is why an appropriate way to deal with the problem should be found, and speech therapists and pathologists can give more than helpful and useful advice on this to the parents.