Parental Support for Children's Healthy Attitudes Towards Stuttering, Slides of Public Health

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Helping ChildrenDevelop Healthy

Attitudes

Toward Stuttering

Wait a minute!!!

What do you mean

by,

“Healthy Attitudes

Toward Stuttering” ?!?

It is not

stuttering

that holds people back...

It is how people react

to their stuttering

How should we expect

children to react

to stuttering?

The Traditional Role of

Parents



In speech therapy, parents typicallyreceive

lots

of advice about how to

help children speak more fluently» “Slow down your own speech”» “Pause before speaking”» “Shorten and simply your sentences”» “Don’t interrupt the child”» “Don’t tell the child to ‘slow down’”

Helping children speakmore fluently is good...

…but it’s not enough!!!

Parents Can Also Help

Children...



Understand what they are doing whenthey stutter and how to change it 

Learn how to

react

to stuttering and how

to deal with

other people’s

reactions



Interpret what it means to have a speechdisorder and (for older children)

accept it



Feel acceptance

regardless of their

speech

Parents Can…

WHAT



Many parents have their own issues andconcerns about stuttering, making it difficult toreact supportively 

Plus, parents are consistently told

not

to react

to their children’s stuttering…» “Do nothing at any time, by word or deed or

posture or facial expression, that wouldserve to call attention to interruptions in(your child's) speech.

» (Johnson, 1962)

Is It

Really

Okay

to Talk about Stuttering?



In a word…YES!

» “There are no published reports of a

relationship between discussing...stutteringand sustained increases in the frequency orseverity of stuttering”

» --Zebrowski & Schum (1993)

» Children who stutter do not respond

adversely when parents provide feedbackabout their speech fluency.

» --Lincoln & Onslow (1997)

Keeping Talking in

Perspective



Talking is just another motor skillyoung children need to develop 

It is perfectly normal for young childrento make mistakes when learning to talk

» Children make mistakes when learning

every

other

motor behavior and we accept it without

concern



For older children who stutter, we need torecognize that stuttering is

normal for them

Why Talk about Stuttering?



Break the “Conspiracy of Silence”(Starkweather & Givens-Ackerman, 1997) 

Help children

understand

stuttering



Help children

feel more comfortable

about their speaking abilities 

Help children learn how to

react

to

stuttering 

Help to

normalize

stuttering

Okay, So…

What Should We Say?

(It

depends…)

Children’s

Awareness

of

Stuttering



Most young children are probably^ aware

of their stuttering at some level

» Most of the time they are able to speak fine,

but sometimes it just doesn’t “work right” » The same is true for nearly every other motor

behavior they are learning how to do



Awareness is not necessarily aproblem, but we probably don’t want toincrease it if we don’t have to

Some Signs of Awareness



Mild

word substitution



Mild

tension or struggle



Mild

frustration during or after

stuttering 

Trying different ways to speakfluently 

Questions such as “why can’t I