Stammering
What is stammering?
What might it look like if my child has a stammer?
- There are different types of stammering behaviour. These are:
You may also notice some secondary behaviours that your child may use to compensate for or hide their stammer. These can include:
Top tips for helping children who stammer:
Therapy for children who stammer
We are specialists in stammering and our therapists are trained in both indirect (e.g. Palin PCI) and direct (e.g. the Lidcombe Programme) therapy.
- Stammering is a common type of speech problem in childhood that can persist into adulthood. It affects the fluency of language and is also known as dysfluency.
What might it look like if my child has a stammer?
- There are different types of stammering behaviour. These are:
- Repeating whole words (e.g. mummy-mummy-mummy can I have….)
- Repeating parts of words (e.g. mu-mu-mummy can I have…)
- Prolonging the first sound of a word (e.g. mmmummy can I have)
- A word gets stuck and doesn't come out at all
You may also notice some secondary behaviours that your child may use to compensate for or hide their stammer. These can include:
- Visible effort when speaking (e.g. tension in the face / jaw)
- Taking a big breath before speaking or holding breath
- Accompanying their speech with other body movements (e.g. moving head, tapping / stamping foot, etc.)
- Reduced eye contact or loss of eye contact
- Opting out of speaking situations
- Stammering is different for everyone and will vary in its severity. Some children may stammer on numerous occasions every day whilst others may have relatively long periods of fluency (or non-stammering). Some children may display more than one type of stammering behaviour, whilst others may stammer in the same way every time.
Top tips for helping children who stammer:
- Avoid telling your child to slow down or take a breath. Instead model this behaviour by slowing down your own rate of speech and taking breaths where appropriate
- Create some 1:1 time where you can play and interact with your child
- Give your child plenty of time to answer your question
- Avoid interrupting your child or finishing off their sentence, even if you know what they are going to say.
- Maintain natural eye contact with your child, particularly during moments of stammering
- Acknowledge your child’s difficulties and that talking is sometimes hard for them
- Ensure that everyone has the opportunity to speak and engage in conversation at home.
Therapy for children who stammer
We are specialists in stammering and our therapists are trained in both indirect (e.g. Palin PCI) and direct (e.g. the Lidcombe Programme) therapy.
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