Answers for Parents

If you are a parent of a child who stutters you can help your child or teenager in many ways. Apart from assisting him in finding and benefiting to varying degrees from some form of speech therapy available in your area you can assist by doing whatever you can to increase his confidence in all areas of his life.

Depending on the severity of the speech dysfluency many children have been known to recover from their stuttering by tackling it head on by taking part in activities that increase their self esteem and self confidence to a greater extent than the stuttering is having an effect on their speaking confidence.

Many children and teens who stutter have benefited from taking part in drama classes in their childhood years. It is a well documented fact that most people who have a speech dysfluency do not stutter when they are singing or acting another character.

Excelling academically or in a sporting field also lifts the self confidence of all children particularly children who are susceptible to experiencing low self esteem for one reason or another.

Children, and particularly teenagers, can also benefit from encouraging comments from their parents. Always assure your children that they will be able to achieve what ever they want in their life if they are prepared to remain positive and work towards their goals. Tell your children to never let their stuttering stop them from doing what ever they want in life.

It will also help your child if the environment at home is as relaxed and stress free, loving and supportive as possible.

Talk to him about his stuttering at the right time. Be understanding as to what your child is going through. Also understand that it will not help to say things like "just slow down" or comments like "will you stop stuttering". Your child will react negatively to such comments and it is likely to make their stuttering worse.

Some teens who stutter can be the subject of bullying from time to time. Be aware of any bullying that may be occurring in your youth's life and seek advice in that regard if it becomes a problem.

As far as speech therapy is concerned there are many competent speech pathologists who will be able to help. At the same time there are many professionals who are not as well trained in the treatment of stuttering as others so try to seek out a professional who has a proven history of getting results with clients who stutter. There are resources on this site to help you find a competent speech pathologist.