Stuttering in children
Having had a stutter for eighteen
years I am fully aware of just how badly this form of speech
impediment can affect a person’s life. I am now a father of a seven
year old boy and even though I have been fluent for twelve years, I
often worry that my son may also develop a
stutter.
I wonder if there is something in
our genetic make up. Perhaps I am being a bit over the top with
these negative thoughts; I would however not want my worst enemy in
the world to be cursed with a stutter, let alone my
son.
After working extremely hard to
overcome my own stutter I am now fully aware of what is required to
be able to speak fluently and also of the reasons why people do in
fact stutter. I am therefore confident that my son will not develop
a stutter as I am always looking out for the signs
etc.
After I started stuttering at the
age of four my parents eventually sought help via our local speech
therapist. They tried to reassure my parents that my stutter was
likely to go away on its own accord and that most children,
especially boys, develop a stutter at some stage of their
childhood.
He continued to say that only a
small percentage of these boys continue to stutter over the long
term. My mother and father were greatly relieved to hear this,
unfortunately as you may have already read on this website, my
stutter did not “just go away on its own accord”, in fact it was to
continue to haunt my life for many more years to
come.
It is estimated that one percent
of the adult population in the UK has a stutter; this therefore
suggests that a lot of children who have this form of speech
impediment do not in fact eradicate it in
childhood.
There are now various forms of
therapy for children who have a stutter.
For children who are under the age
of ten, a speech course may be too intense and therefore some form
of self-help home based therapy may be more
beneficial.
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