My child is stuttering. What to know. What to do.
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So, you or your child stutters.
Before you consult too much with Dr. Google, let us share some helpful facts to steer you in a helpful direction (also see our infographic).
Sometimes the best place to start is to understand what stuttering is NOT...
Stuttering is NOT an emotional problem
Stuttering is NOT a cognitive problem
Stuttering is NOT caused by parents
Stuttering is likely pre-wired, within the child's neurophysiological "wiring" at birth. Often, stuttering first appears years later during the developmental years of 2-8, correlated to developmental and/or environmental conditions.
Many kids go through some dysfluency or fluency instability for a period of time and move through it. The incidence is probably underreported for those who are younger and experience disfluency for shorter durations of time.
Research suggests that five out of a hundred (5%) kids stutter for six months or more, and only one out of a hundred (1%) retain the trait into adulthood.
So, there is a strong likelihood that this is not going to be a lifelong trait. This can be something optimistic to know, and valuable to keep in mind.
With that being said, when your child is stuttering, you don't care about statistics. You don't want your child to become a statistic.
So I think it's really important for people who care for families to remember that.
Parents don't need statistics. They need help as parents and they want to help their child the very best they can.
I think finding what's right for you, finding the right resource of information for yourself is the best thing you can do. Anyone who knows me, and anyone who knows this issue would agree that binging on Dr. Google is probably the worst thing you could possibly do!
There are good resources out there, and support groups for families who are dealing with this issue with their children.
We are not the only address, but we can be a good one for you.
You can contact us. Stay tuned as we roll-out more content, videos and free webinars like this!
Uri Schneider, Co-Director Schneider Speech