Stuttering is a speech disorder which causes the forward flow of speech. The Speech interruptions are involuntary and prolonging sounds, syllables, words or phrases in the person is a result of this disorder. There may a number of causes about stuttering in children. First genetics, may be a probable cause as stuttering often has been seen to run in families. Then there may be developmental factors for this too. During the preschool years, many of the child’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional and speech learning skills develop at a rapid rate. Unfortunately the speech development may not happen at this period of time leading to stuttering. There may also be certain environmental caused leading to stuttering. The parental expectations of the parents regarding the child’s speech and language environment, or certain stressful life events may also lead to this problem. Here however the parents are not to blame, their expectation may not be harmful to the child who does not stutter but aggravates it in a child who has a stuttering tendency. The child’s fear and anxiety causes the child’s stuttering to continue and may even make it worse in some cases. We at Speech Plus , speech therapy specialist in Kolkata analyze what could be done to treat stuttering in children.
Treating Stuttering In Children:
As a parent you need to be conscious of the fact and notice whether your child is suffering from stammering. In case you observe this problem in your child regularly, then you need to treat it. You can yourself begin by making the child say single words in a slow relaxed way. Then the number of words being spoken by him or her in this way needs to be gradually increased until the child is able to say full sentences slowly without stuttering. Moreover you need to consult a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) or Speech Therapist to treat the problem. Many a time parents get worried having the misconception that the speech therapy may actually his or her awareness of the problem and thus worsen it. More over research shows that many children may outgrow this problem on their own without speech therapy. But there have also been studies which suggest that if a child has been stuttering for more than 1 year, then the possibility of his or her outgrowing it without speech therapy is significantly reduced. Besides if the stuttering problem recurs even after the preschool years which are above 3 years then the speech therapy to treat the problem becomes all the more necessary.
Through speech therapy some children are able to eliminate stuttering completely. Other children learn strategies in speech therapies to stutter less. So Speech therapy does therefore help in most cases. But the benefits of the therapy may vary from children to children. If the problem has been there long it takes more time while in children who have been suffering for a shorter period tend to progress better.
In speech Therapy parents too can help by learning how the sessions are being conducted and try to repeat some of the exercises back home.
We at Speech Plus have Speech and Language Specialists (SLPs) who are experts in the field and can help your child to overcome the problem. For further details in this regard please visit https://speechplus.in/our-services