How to Help Your Child Overcome Stuttering

Posted on October 20 2017

How to Help Your Child Overcome Stuttering

Building confidence is the first step in getting stuttering help for your little one.

Learn how to overcome stuttering by building confidence.

When your child stutters, you feel helpless. You want to fix the problem, but where should you begin? After enlisting the help of a licensed speech therapist, you can be working on something just as important: their confidence.

But how can you build your child’s confidence while s/he struggles to overcome stuttering tendencies? Here are a few tips to try:

Practice Patience

Speaking fluidly can be a struggle for your child, and every time you say, “slow down,” you are only reminding them that they’re doing something wrong. A better strategy is to simply be patient and remain focused on what they’re saying. Don’t look away and keep a relaxed posture. If you get anxious, your child will feel (or see) it and get anxious too – and that will only make the problem worse.

Give Praise

Praise your child every day. The compliments can relate to their speech improvement or could be unrelated. The key is to make the child feel as if they are accomplishing something meaningful, so they have hope for overcoming their speech impediment.

Be Realistic

It takes time to overcome stuttering. Don’t expect instant improvement simply because your child started working with a speech therapist or began using a new tool or speech aid. Progress will come. Setting realistic expectations for yourself and your child will go a long way in helping feel better about himself or herself.

Make Talking Fun

Stuttering children must work very hard at getting sentences out, so it’s no wonder they tend to stay quiet most of the time. Work to find ways to make talking fun to boost their confidence. Here are a few ideas:

Teach your child to sing instead of speak
Use the Toobaloo, a colorful and child-friendly speech tool for auditory feedback
Play speech games that require your child to describe or give directions

Show Respect

It can be hard for parents to know how to best treat a stuttering child, especially in a group. Don’t force your child to speak, but also avoid talking for your child too. Find a balance between being helpful and taking over the conversation to save your child from feeling intimidated or uncomfortable. Remember, if you show your child respect, others will too.

Get Help

Working to build a child’s confidence isn’t always easy, especially when they must deal with stuttering. Just remember: you aren’t alone. There is plenty of help available for both parents and children. Find a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP) near you and seek classroom-proven tools that will help your child’s stuttering.

To find out more about how to help your child overcome stuttering, browse our blog for parent tips and resources. Shop our innovative and affordable reading and speech tools online or call 877.819.2541 for customer service today.

Looking for more ideas? Check out these five stutter-defeating methods that promote confidence and fluency here.