Essential Ideas about Stuttering in Children

Every parent wants to catch the first words of their children. They are eagerly waiting for the time that their kids can finally talk and express what they want to say through words. It is only normal to feel a bit warned and problematic after learning that they are finding it hard to speak when they are already at the right age. Stuttering is common to younger ones like those in preschool. How would you know that the condition should already be referred to a professional? 

If the kid is really young, you must give them enough time and allow them to keep up with their own pace on how fast or how slow they will be able to learn how to talk properly. The best thing that you can do to guide and help them at this point is by talking to them and helping your kids pronounce the words that they are finding hard to say. You must not hurry them to talk straight and right because it will eventually come. They must not feel any pressure whenever they want to say something. You should let them finish what they have to say without any interruptions. Through this, they will be able to practice how to construct their sentences and put words together to be able to verbalize what they want to let other people know.

If they are at the right age or even while they are young but the condition is already hindering their social growth, this is when you should start seeking help by getting them treated by the right professionals. In this case, you can get them checked by a professional speech language pathologist. If you don’t know anyone, you must try to research about similar cases because the results will give you good leads as to the right people that you can consult about the matter. 

Normal Phase

This is a phase that everybody goes through as part of speech development. This situation is actually referred to as psuedostuttering or dysfluency, which is only normal and must not raise warning signals. The child is trying to imitate sounds and say the words that express how they feel. This is a new experience for them so it is only natural that they fumble with their words as they repeat syllables, they substitute the sounds of the words, they pause in the process of saying difficult words or they aren’t able to say what they want to.

The more pressure that you will put on them to finish fast with what they want to convey or to prompt them to say the right things, they will stutter all the more. This is because they will feel the pressure. They are already excited as it is with this new phase that they are beginning to learn. It won’t help if you will add any factors to stress them out all the more. 

The best way to diagnose if your child’s stuttering is already causing them problems is to give them time and observe how they deal with it. If the condition is not causing them any troubles, then you should leave your worries behind for the meantime.  
