The child speaks very slowly - why does the child speak slowly

Bradylalia is a pathology in which a child speaks very slowly. Experts qualify it as a violation of the tempo and rhythm of speech, which is not convulsive in nature. Bradylalia manifests itself as:

independent disorder. This type of pathology is typical for slow, overly calm and lethargic children;
symptom of the disease. A child may begin to suffer from bradyllalia due to acquired or congenital mental retardation, with dystrophic or organic lesions of the central nervous system, or after suffering infectious diseases. In this case, the child experiences a slowdown not only in speech, but also in movements. Children speak poorly, get tired quickly, feel weak and lethargic.

Experts distinguish between different degrees of bradyllalia. In some cases, the child speaks slightly slowly, which is almost imperceptible to the people around him. With more severe degrees of pathology, problems with adaptation in society and developmental delays may be observed. Cerebellar bradyllalia is in its own category. It is characterized by scanned speech.

Signs of bradylalia

The presence of bradyllalia in a child can be determined by the presence of verbal and non-verbal symptoms. In the first case we observe:

slowdown in spoken speech;
the occurrence of delays between words and sounds while the child speaks (the baby can stretch out vowels);
monotony of voice, pronunciation of sounds “in the nose”, nasality;
stretching out syllables and sounds (although children say all the words absolutely correctly);
the child's slowness in reading and writing.

Nonverbal signs include:

violations of facial expressions and motor skills;
inattention, lethargy and poor coordination;
deterioration of attention, memory and thought processes;
difficulty switching from one activity to another (the child may also experience repetition of the same movement);
isolation, silence and very difficult adaptation.

If your child speaks slowly, it may simply be a manifestation of his temperament. However, parents should not ignore this problem. Contacting specialists to correct the pathology will allow the child to get rid of bradylia and lead a full life.

Causes

Children speak very slowly for a variety of reasons. The main factor in the development of bradyllalia is the strengthening of inhibitory processes, which over time begin to prevail over excitatory processes. Speech therapists distinguish physiological and psychological causes of pathology.

A child can inherit bradyllalia or acquire it as a result of perinatal damage to the central nervous system. It is also a symptom:

oligophrenia;
Parkinson's disease;
brain injuries;
meningitis;
depressive disorder;
brain tumors;
encephalitis.

Children speak measuredly and very slowly due to lack of speech training or by imitating a loved one. Pathology can also develop due to decreased mental function and mental retardation. Very often, bradyllia appears in phlegmatic children. Such a child is naturally inhibited and slow.

Diagnosis of bradyllalia

Parents of a child who speaks slowly should seek professional help. A comprehensive examination may require the participation of a neurologist, psychiatrist, speech therapist and psychologist. Instrumental studies are used to identify the physiological causes of speech pathology. The child may be prescribed:

MRI of the brain;
PAT;
rheoencephalography;
EEG, etc.

In addition, the child is examined by a speech therapist. He conducts speech diagnostics to determine the degree of bradyllalia and select an effective correction method.

If a child stutters article on speech therapy on the topic

IF A CHILD STUTTERS

Recently, a friend brought her four-year-old son to me and, barely holding back tears, reported that the baby had begun to stutter. The child stood nearby, looked at his mother in fear, realizing that something terrible had happened, and could not utter a word...

How often do specialists have to witness such scenes? Young parents, noticing their baby's hesitation, fall into despair and turn it into a real tragedy. Thus, they prematurely attract the child’s attention to a speech disorder, which, in turn, not only aggravates stuttering, but also contributes to neurotic personality development.

Unfortunately, sometimes we have to deal with the other extreme, when parents are completely indifferent to the appearance of stuttering in children.

Stuttering is one of the most common childhood speech disorders. Every fiftieth child on the planet stutters. Most often, stuttering occurs at the age of 3-5 years, when the child begins to assimilate words with a complex syllabic structure, his vocabulary expands, and phrasal speech improves. Against the background of an existing organic disease of the central nervous system, an infectious disease, mental trauma (fear), emotional stress, and hereditary predisposition, the coordinated work of the respiratory organs, vocal function and organs of the speech apparatus is disrupted. This is due to a disruption in the coordinated functioning of the cerebral hemispheres. The phenomenon of stuttering is that, as a rule, convulsions are not observed outside of speech.

Stuttering manifests itself in different ways. At the initial stage, this may be a convulsive inhalation or an intermittent exhalation, when the child pauses before each word. In some cases, children begin to drag out the vowel at the beginning of a word, or have difficulty “pushing out” the first sound or syllable. More often there is multiple repetition of the first syllable or word (ma - ma - ma - tire...).

As a result, speech rate, rhythm, and fluency suffer. But only at the initial stage, stuttering is a convulsive disorder of the rhythm and fluency of speech. If parents did not pay attention to stuttering in time and did not take measures to overcome it, believing that it would go away on its own, then by the time the child enters school, the stuttering child is quite fixed on speech, and fear of verbal communication appears.

Further - more... At school, classmates do not skimp on nicknames. Teachers do not always have enough tact and patience: they do not listen to the end, they ask you to answer in writing. In adolescence, a child tries to determine his place in the world, paying more and more attention to his appearance, speech, and assessment of his strengths and weaknesses by his peers. He becomes more and more emotional, sensitive, impressionable, and his fear of speech situations increases, since they are especially significant for him. The motivation for communication changes, and the teenager is PAINFULLY fixated on his speech. It is during this period that stuttering moves into the next stage - speech neurosis, or LOGONEUROSIS, which is aggravated by a pathological fear of speech.

Any verbal communication, be it an answer at the blackboard, a conversation on the phone, a conversation with a girl, traumatizes the teenager, which in turn contributes to school and social maladjustment. Gradually, a feeling of one’s own inferiority, vulnerability, irritability, hot temper, and lack of confidence in oneself and one’s capabilities develops. Emerging psychological characteristics are consolidated and often develop into persistent mental states and personality traits. That is why it is so important to help the child in a timely manner and prevent the development of the disease.

If you notice stuttering in a child, you need to contact a neurologist or speech therapist at your place of residence. At the same time, parents should organize a gentle regime for the baby, that is, limit verbal communication to a minimum. For a while, switch to communicating using gestures and drawings, as well as whispering speech and singing. It is advisable, if possible, to exclude excessive emotional and physical stress, such as playing sports, from a child’s life. You should limit your viewing of TV shows, especially in the evening, and replace them with listening to music or watching filmstrips. Before going to bed, it is advisable to read well-known and favorite fairy tales in a quiet, soothing voice. Relatives and friends should give children as much warmth and affection as possible during this period. We must try to exclude both strong negative and positive emotions from the lives of children, to make sure that one day of a child’s life is not much different from another: at the same time he should walk, eat, sleep, play, etc. It is advisable that he be surrounded only by the closest people. It is necessary to limit communication even with peers. After the silent regime (3-5 days), you can carefully move on to using whispered speech, imagining it as a game. For example, a favorite toy is sick and all family members therefore speak in a whisper.

After a few days you should start singing. It is better if during this period a professional music teacher teaches singing to the child, since singing helps organize proper speech breathing and also reduces vocal spasms. It is advisable to start classes with various chants on vowel sounds, with the gradual inclusion of sonorant and nasal consonants (p, m, n). At home, you can stage an impromptu opera in which all family members participate.

The transition to habitual speech activity should be carried out gradually. During this period, the speech of parents, which should be calm, clear, harmonious, well-intonated, and concise, acquires particular importance. It is useful to use a conjugate form of speech when the child speaks with them (“We made a snow woman today!”), or a reflected form when the child repeats after his mother: “What a delicious lunch!” Or communicate in question-and-answer form with the child, when the answer repeats the question, only in the affirmative form: “Are you going to play?” - "I will play".

One of the most important characteristics of speech is its tempo. Regulating the rhythm of speech is a necessary component of most speech restoration methods for people who stutter. A calm, slow pace improves the rhythm of speech and also allows you to control speech, which, in turn, promotes the coordinated functioning of the respiratory system, voice guidance, and speech articulation, thereby reducing the number of stutters.

To improve speech self-control and slow down the pace, the child can be invited to play as a fairy-tale prince, princess or sorceress who speak slowly, expressively, in a beautiful fairy-tale mysterious voice. The child will be able to achieve this by speaking with conducting for each vowel sound.

A child who stutters will be greatly helped by special exercises to coordinate speech with movement, that is, reading poetry in a syllable-by-syllable rhythm synchronously with the movement of the arms, legs, fingers, step, clapping, etc. For example, a child reads a well-known poem by A. Barto, clapping each syllable with his palms: U-RO-NI-LI-MI-SHKU-ON-FLOOR O-TOR-VA-LI-MI-SHKE-LA-PU

Or he walks in place, chanting:

NO, RIGHT-WE-RE-SHI-LI ABOUT-KA-TIT-KO-TA-IN-MA-SHI-NOT...

Or, conducting:

I-CHUCK, KA-CHA-ET-SA, SIGH-HA-ET-ON-HO-DU...

The child can be asked to imagine himself as an artist who reads these poems in a children's theater on a stage in front of a large hall, and young children listen attentively. Thanks to this, speech will become more expressive and louder, and the lesson will turn into an interesting game.

The consequence of stuttering is muscle tension. Parents should learn basic techniques to overcome tension in children’s speech muscles. To do this, you can use articulation massage, which increases muscle performance and relaxes the speech muscles. The child experiences subjective positive sensations: the emotional state improves, stiffness decreases, a feeling of pleasant warmth and drowsiness arises. Therefore, articulation massage is best performed before daytime or nighttime sleep.

The baby's head is on the mother's lap. Mom's hands should be clean and warm. In order not to injure the baby’s delicate skin, it is better to treat your hands with baby cream. The massage can be performed with quiet melodic music, preferably piano music.

Work on relaxing the muscles of the articulatory apparatus begins with general muscle relaxation of the neck, chest muscles, arm muscles, shoulder girdle, and only then a relaxing massage of the facial muscles is carried out. Hand movements should be light, gentle, sliding, soothing and should coincide with the musical accompaniment.

Superficial stroking is a soft, gentle technique. The muscles of the massage therapist's palm should be as relaxed as possible. This technique is used to reduce the increased tone of the speech muscles and reduces the excitability of the nervous system.

Deep stroking is a more intense technique.

Rubbing - performed with light application of significant pressure on the massaged area. Significantly enhances blood circulation, metabolic and trophic processes in tissues.

Intermittent vibration or tapping has different effects. Gentle tapping increases muscle tone, while strong tapping or “staccato” tapping reduces increased muscle tone and excitability.

Tight pressing improves blood circulation and metabolic processes.

Let us remind you that each massage ends with stroking.

A description of the movements of articulation massage is given below, the massage diagram is shown in the figure.

1, 2. General movement - stroking the face and neck. Using the second, third, fourth and fifth fingers of both hands, we simultaneously stroke along the massage lines. We finish stroking by fixing the earlobes.

Stroking the face - place the third and fourth fingers in the middle of the chin, the second above the upper lip, and stroke along the massage lines to the tragus of the auricle.
Transitional - with the second, third and fourth fingers we stroke from under the chin along the nasolabial fold, the side surfaces of the nose and across the bridge of the nose, we proceed to stroking along the massage line from the middle of the forehead to the temporal hollows, where we lightly press the skin with our fingers.
Wave-like stroking - having reached the inner corners of the eyes, we easily slide our fingers to the eyebrow and, grabbing it with the second and third fingers, we perform a wave-like stroking towards the temple. We finish the movement by lightly pressing the skin on the temples.
Stroking the circular muscles - using the pads of the fourth fingers of both hands, we simultaneously stroke from the temple along the lower eyelid to the inner corner of the eye. Then we smoothly move to the upper eyelid and stroke it very lightly, without pressing on the eyeball.
Stroking the frontal and temporal cavity - with the second, third and fourth fingers of both hands, bent in the shape of the forehead, we alternately stroke from bottom to top, smoothly moving the fingers to the temples. Additionally, stroke the temples with your fingertips.
Transitional - with the second, third, fourth and fifth fingers of both hands, we simultaneously stroke along the massage lines.
Tapping - we massage the submandibular area by patting the backs of the fingers, then with the pads of the four fingers of both hands we simultaneously tap along the massage lines.
Staccato - sharp, jerky, alternating strikes with the pads of the fingers. We carry out the movements continuously, with both hands, simultaneously along the massage lines, ending with fixation at the earlobes.
Firm pressing - we perform movements with both hands at the same time, starting from the bottom, gradually moving up. After each press, raise your hands a little and press again on the massaged area. The last movement is from the middle of the forehead to the temporal cavity.
Stroking along massage lines.
A special exercise recommended for stuttering to relax the orbicularis labii muscle, which is associated with a closing spasm of the lips.

The index and third fingers are placed near the corners of the mouth and the lips are stretched, as if smiling. With a reverse movement, turning it into a vertical fold, the lips return to their original position. The movements are light, smooth, sliding.

Similar movements are carried out alternately with the upper and lower lips.

Unfortunately, there is no easy cure for stuttering. This is a serious therapeutic and pedagogical process. Some parents hope for a “miracle,” so they often turn to unqualified or untrained people for help who have learned only a few simple techniques for help. Only a comprehensive course of treatment, requiring the participation of a speech therapist, neurologist, physiotherapist, logorhythmist after long-term painstaking work with the active participation of parents, can give a positive result.

In conclusion, it is necessary to give some advice (recommendations) to young parents on how to raise a calm, balanced child.

Do not prepare your baby for upcoming events. Even the expectation of something pleasant creates tension.
Try to keep your child from speaking when he is crying, especially sobbing. Sobbing leads to the repetition of syllables and words, and after crying the baby takes a tense, convulsive breath for a long time, so it is necessary first to calm, distract, and interest him in something.
There is no need to scold a child if he is afraid of something, for example, the dark, a dog, Baba Yaga. No need to ask him to talk about it. We must make it clear that mom is nearby and can protect.
There is never any need to adjust. If parents are in a hurry, then they must feed and clothe the baby themselves.
If a child categorically refuses to sleep during the day, then under no circumstances should you force him. You can read a book to him, put on a record.
Do not force your child to read poetry in front of strangers if he does not like it.
Avoid situations that are upsetting.
If there is a younger child in the family and the older one is jealous, try to treat the older one like a little one: rock him, spoon-feed him, etc.
Involve children in quiet household activities. Get used to board games.
Playing with sand and water calms the nervous system.
It is useful to sing and dance to music.
Try not to place too high demands on your child. Be patient.
Watch your speech, it should become a model for your baby.

Good speech is a great blessing. Thanks to her, your child will become a self-confident, balanced, purposeful person, will be able to appreciate both himself and others, and will be able to do what he loves in life.

Correction of speech pathology

If a child speaks slowly due to physiological disorders, then therapy is aimed at eliminating the underlying disease. First of all, treatment involves normalizing the functioning of the central nervous system. Complex therapy may include:

taking medications. Strengthening and stimulating medications, as well as vitamin complexes, are selected for the child. Medicines containing glutamic acid are actively used;
physical therapy. Water activities, swimming, massage and physiotherapeutic procedures are very effective;
consultations with a psychotherapist. Sessions with a psychologist are also possible to overcome emotional problems. A child who spoke slowly for a long time could withdraw from society and lose self-confidence;
educational games. The child will benefit from activities that improve motor skills, facial expressions and emotional speech. For example, children benefit from acting lessons and stage performances. The child also needs to read more, solve riddles, learn and sing rhythmic songs;
manual labor. Assembling construction sets, embroidering and other activities help develop fine motor skills. The child's speech rate improves when learning dance moves. Physical education and sports will not be superfluous.

Of course, a child who speaks very slowly needs the help of qualified teachers and speech therapists. This is one of the most important parts of treatment.

How are classes with a teacher going?

For a child suffering from slow speech, the most effective correction method is logarithmics. During classes, kids run, march, or perform other physical exercises to rhythmic music. Games are also played, accompanied by the pronunciation of various sentences and words.

The child’s speech in classes with the teacher is gradually stimulated. Correction classes include four main stages.

The teacher pronounces a very simple sentence, for example, “sa-sa-sa is a fox walking through the forest.” At the same time, he sets the pace by clapping, tapping on the table or moving his hands. The child needs to repeat the sentence several times. The pace set by the teacher gradually increases. Therefore, the child has to say the phrase faster and faster.
The child is asked to learn a few simple poems. Then he must quickly recite lines from them. If the child already knows poems, then you can use his favorite ones.
At the third stage, the child needs to learn not only a fast pace of speech, but also its expressiveness. Therefore, during classes, children speak in roles, acting out excerpts from fairy tales.
At the last stage, children learn tongue twisters. This allows the child to consolidate the skills acquired during the correction.

Timely detection of bradyllalia in a child makes it possible to begin correction. An integrated approach to eliminating pathology allows you to achieve good results. However, in addition to classes, the child needs the help of parents. They must be careful to ensure that the baby does not start speaking slowly again. It is recommended to repeat poems and tongue twisters at home.

Hesitations in a child’s speech - how to deal with them?

Mom reads a book to a little girl (photo Fotolia.com)

The baby had long ago learned to speak well, and suddenly he began to pronounce words, stretching out the letters, stuttering and repeating the same syllables several times in a row... Has the child started to stutter? Speech therapist Natalia Babich answers

The main thing is not to panic! Hesitations in speech do not always mean that a child stutters. At a younger age, speech disturbances may occur. There are a number of reasons for this.

Where to look for the cause of stuttering?

Firstly, there is a rapid increase in vocabulary when there is a large gap between the active vocabulary and the passive one. Secondly, when parents overload the child with various kinds of clubs and activities, trying to give him everything at once, while forgetting about the daily routine (sleep, walks, games with peers, etc.). Another reason may be frequent illnesses, high temperatures, injuries, etc., after which problems with speech may occur.

Watch the baby

First, watch your child, take a closer look at how he talks, when he stammers more often (morning, afternoon, evening, when he speaks quickly or when he is nervous, for example). You should suspect stuttering if the baby involuntarily stops while speaking and repeats individual sounds, syllables, and words. You will notice how tense and nervous he is, that he cannot pronounce a word or syllable, and at the same time begins to have complexes and give monosyllabic answers “yes” and “no”. In this case, you should immediately contact specialists. If this has just arisen and is more like a hesitation in speech, then you can fight it.

To begin with, set the “silence” mode, that is, minimal speech load (fewer questions, statements, retellings, etc.). Vocal lessons are useful; sing songs, chants and even poems together. Let the child “work with his hands” more: draw, sculpt, design, etc. It is important to do breathing exercises, since stuttering is associated with speech breathing. A very effective method is swimming or simply bathing with sea salt.

Communicate correctly

When communicating with such a child, adhere to the following rules: • When hesitating, you need to carefully stop the child and try to start a sentence (statement) instead of him to give him time to form a thought and find the right words. • Speak quietly, clearly, in a calm voice. • Under no circumstances should you raise your tone, make sharp gestures, or use “explosive” intonations. • Do not interrupt or push the child. • Hug and praise more often for success, especially in speech activity: “Your story is simply amazing!”, “This is very interesting!” • Temporarily limit attendance at entertainment events with large numbers of people.

If you do not notice any improvements or if your speech hesitations become stronger, contact a specialist: a neurologist, speech therapist, or psychologist.

Prognosis and prevention

In most cases, the prognosis for bradyllalia is favorable. Especially if the parents noticed in a timely manner that the child spoke slowly and turned to specialists for help. However, after a successful correction, you should not let your guard down. As a preventive measure it is recommended:

lead a healthy lifestyle and follow doctors’ recommendations during pregnancy;
protect the child from traumatic brain injuries and infectious diseases;
maintain a daily routine and diet;
ensure that the child develops speech and work with him;
talk to the baby, teach poems and songs.

Slow speech is not always a symptom of a disease. In most cases, lessons with a teacher are sufficient. Therefore, you should not worry too much when signs of bradylia appear. But if you are worried about your baby, then contact the NEAPL speech therapy and psychology center. Experienced teachers will help correct speech disorders.

What to do if your child stutters

Authors : American Academy of Pediatrics

Stuttering is a problem with the rhythm of speech when a person knows exactly what he/she wants to say, but is unable to do so due to involuntary (uncontrollable) repetitions of sounds or speech stopping at a certain sound. This phenomenon is quite common - about 5% of all children stutter at some point in their lives, and about 1% of people stutter from childhood into old age. As children get older, their bodies are less likely to react to stress by stuttering, but this reaction is still possible in adulthood. Interestingly, there are about 3 times more boys and men who stutter than girls and women.

What Causes Stuttering?

The causes of stuttering are still not completely clear, but it is known that one of them is a hereditary predisposition.

Children whose mother or father stutters or stutters are much more likely to start stuttering than other children.
Children who have a sister or brother who stutters are also more likely to stutter.

Damage to brain tissue before, during, or after birth is recognized as the only known "external" factor that makes stuttering more likely, but it must be recognized that most children who stutter do not have any brain damage. Additionally, most people with a history of brain damage do not stutter.
Deafness is the only known factor that makes a person less likely to stutter.
Stuttering occurs in all nations of the world and in all languages, as well as in all historical groups.

If we take into account the factors listed above (heredity, widespread occurrence), it becomes absolutely clear that there is some physical cause for stuttering. Parents cannot cause their children to stutter .

What happens when someone stutters?

There is very little neurophysical (brain/nerve/muscle related) dysfunction in the body.
The person has difficulty coordinating airflow, articulation, and resonance (articulation and resonance involve the coordinated movement of small muscles in the mouth to form sounds and control their volume).
A person may speak more freely and correctly in certain situations (perhaps at home) and less freely when feeling restless, anxious or tired.
Stressful conditions, such as speaking in front of a large audience, can aggravate stuttering, which in turn increases stress further. It is sometimes very difficult for a person who stutters to speak on the phone.
Although stress can make stuttering worse, stress itself does not cause stuttering .

People almost never stutter when they sing, whisper, speak in unison with others, or cannot hear their own voice.

Stuttering recognition

For most children who stutter, fluency problems will become noticeable between the ages of 2 and 5 years. However, you need to know that almost all babies at some point in their lives repeat some sounds, words and cannot speak freely - these are physiologically normal problems with speech fluency that will go away on their own.

If someone else in the family stutters, it is possible that the stutter will persist for life.

Possible options for true stuttering:

repeating part of words, for example the first consonant in a word (t-t-t-table);
lengthened sound at the beginning of a word (sssssok);
silence before, in or after words;
The "break" almost always occurs at or near the beginning of a sentence.

A child with physiological fluency problems (called developmental stuttering):

often repeats entire words or phrases (I-I-I want to go, I want to go for a walk!);
as a rule, does not repeat part of a word more than 1–2 times;
continues speaking after he has started.

Also, special movements and behavior are possible. For example, tension in the muscles of the lips, jaws and neck, tremors of the lips, jaws and tongue during attempts to speak, blinking, turning and tilting the head.

What you need to know about stuttering

Children and adults who stutter know exactly what word or words they are trying to say, meaning they stutter not because they are trying unsuccessfully to find the right word.
People who stutter generally do not have hearing or listening problems.
People who talk to someone who stutters should not slow down their speech.
There is some disagreement about whether people who stutter have the same or lower intelligence than others. Most studies show that there are no intellectual differences between those who stutter and those who do not have speech problems.
Some children who stutter may have fine motor problems in other muscle groups, causing them to be perceived as more clumsy than others.
It is believed that children who stutter have problems with social adaptation (it is difficult for them to make friends, feel confident in a group, etc.). But this is a consequence, not a cause of stuttering.

The skills of children who stutter should be assessed individually, and most importantly, without prejudice to the idea that they are “clumsier,” “less intelligent,” or “lack social skills.”

Impact of stuttering on everyday life

Stuttering has different effects on different people.

Some children with a mild form of stuttering may become very upset about their handicap, while others with a more severe form may be less upset.
Stuttering interferes with a person's communication from the moment it appears.
School-age children feel awkward about showing their disability when answering questions or reading aloud.
People who stutter often try to avoid any conversation at all, which further exacerbates their speech problems when they do have to speak.
Stuttering can significantly limit employment options for adults.

Survey

Children who lack fluent speech should be assessed as early as possible.
“Developmental stuttering” lasts for a relatively short period.
Seek advice from a pediatrician or speech therapist immediately if your child begins to stutter.
An assessment of speech pathology is necessary if stuttering manifests itself in most speech activities, tension during conversation and attempts to avoid conversation are constantly observed, and also if there are speech problems in other family members.
If parents are concerned that the child is becoming anxious, sad and withdrawn, or if the stuttering is progressing, then evaluation by a specialist is urgently needed.

Note: Some organizations recommend screening at a later date—for example, 12 months after stuttering begins or when the child turns 5 years old. However, most experts strongly emphasize that therapy works much better if started early.

There are often long waits to see a speech-language pathologist, so make an appointment as early as possible. If the problem goes away on its own, it is better to cancel the appointment (try to do this a week or earlier so that someone else can sign up for you).

Therapy

In some children, stuttering disappears on its own, but it is not possible to find out in advance which children will be able to do without therapy.
Early initiation of therapy is very important for the development of normal speech skills.
Early therapy, even if the stuttering is minor, can make a significant difference, significantly reducing the length of the treatment period.
There are several different treatments for stuttering—some are used for young children, while others are recommended primarily for teenagers and adults.

What can parents do?

Make sure your child sees a speech therapist if you suspect he or she stutters. Such consultation is mandatory if someone else in the family also stutters.
Often, in order to provide full assistance to a child who stutters, parents must undergo “training” from a speech therapist. But there's no need to worry about the complexity of the "science": it may simply involve repeating words like "slow down," "relax," "try again," and "don't worry."
Listen to your child very patiently and show that you are willing to listen and wait until he/she can say everything he/she wants . Maintain constant eye contact.
Don't interrupt or say words that you think the child was trying to say. You may say the wrong words and your baby will become even more upset.
Do not deliberately speak more slowly or with increased intonation - children who stutter hear well and understand you perfectly.
If you tried your best, but did not understand what the child wanted to say, say something like “Sorry, I didn’t understand...”. But don't pretend to understand if you don't.
Make sure your child is not teased or bullied because of his disability in your family, daycare, or school.
Ask your speech therapist about ways to help your child speak better in front of others (such as in class), and then share these tips with the teacher.
If anyone in your family has “good examples” of how they overcame stuttering, ask them to share those experiences with your child. Remember: a successful example can greatly help children, especially in difficult moments. Make sure your child hears fewer “bad” stories about stuttering, especially at a young age.
Try to get as much useful and high-quality information as possible about how else you can help your child!

Source

published 06/22/2016 14:35 updated 06/23/2016 — Growth and development, Congenital and hereditary diseases, genetics, Neurology and psychiatry