Should I Do Stuttering Therapy For 3-Year-Old Child?

I will tell you that, just an hour ago, I was on a Skype appointment with a family and their two and a half year old son just started stuttering. And, even though he just started stuttering less than a month ago, I took the time to make it an appointment for them, because that's what they wanted.

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The Right Way Vs. the Wrong Way

• There is no right way

• There is a wrong way, which is to try to do a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution.

• We may be the professionals and we may be the experts, but we're not the boss. A mother's intuition, a father's intuition is the best knowledge and the best guide in the process.

remember what stuttering is

• Stuttering is

  • a physical issue not an emotionally based issue

  • a neurophysiological issue, which involves the coordination of signals and neurons in the brain setting up the coordination of the speech mechanism

• Stuttering is NOT

  • a learning disability

  • caused by anxiety

  • caused by parents

Good Communication Values

• Plant communication values during moments of opportunity. You don't teach values, you plant them.

• If we can listen to what the child has to say and practice active listening at the moment that the child is getting stuck, we can send a very powerful message to that young child. And that message is:

“What you have to say is worth listening to, no matter how it comes out. I'm listening to what you have to say more than how you say it”. 

Uri Schneider, Co-Director Schneider Speech