What Should I Do If My Child Stutters?
Stuttering is a speech disorder. The stuttering child tends to repeat or prolong the sound of syllables or words. Sometimes he can’t even pronounce the syllable or the word and he finds himself unable to express himself. Many parents confuse the hesitation of a child in the learning phase with stuttering. So, if you want to know a little more about stuttering, this article is for you.
What is Stuttering?
Around the age of three or four, when children are learning the language, they tend to repeat a few words or have a blockage of a few seconds caused by hesitation. At this age, the child is building his language and structuring his thinking. So it’s quite normal that he happens to say phrases such as “I want to see mom” or “I want to go to……. toilets”. On the other hand, if you notice actions such as:
Repeating syllables or phonemes such as “a an a cat” or “a dododog” means that your child is suffering from a clonic stutter.
Initiate a syllable by blocking a word. Usually, it is this word that breaks the silence such as “A …..sass style”. The child is stuck, frozen, not knowing how to get the word out, and here, we talk about tonic stuttering.
If you notice these last two types, then it is called tonic-clonic stuttering.
What is The Cause Of Stuttering?
Stuttering is far from being a psychological problem, it is rather a neurophysiological problem. Much of the cause of stuttering is hereditary. If one of the parents stutters or stutters, then the child is three times more likely to develop stuttering. The second trigger is the environment. In this case, the child already has genetic predispositions and with a trigger such as an event that has aroused a lot of emotions, stuttering is triggered.
When Should I Consult a Speech Therapist?
Do you have suspicions that your child has a stuttering problem? Is your child more than three and a half years old? And it has one of the following factors?
- Stuttering that lasts more than six months,
- One of the parent’s stutters and the child begins to stutter,
- The child begins to cry when he wants to talk and who releases negative emotions due to the inability to communicate easily.
Don’t wait any longer! Take your child to see a speech-language educator as soon as possible.
Being a parent, you need to constantly observe your child and see if he stutters all the time or sometimes only. Does he stutter when he is with his friends? Does he stutter in class? Sometimes what is believed to be a stutter can be a simple blockage of something. And there, it is up to the parents to discover the problem in order to treat it.
At The Vine Learning Center Daycares in San Diego, we can help your kid overcome the stuttering disorder and refer you to professional speech therapists if need be.