Stuttering Causes Back-To-School Woes

When teachers hear a child begin to stutter, the immediate reaction is one of concern mixed with a host of urgent questions.

Should they call on him in class, or will that only make the stuttering worse? How should they handle teasing by other children? What should they do about reading aloud?

The non-profit Stuttering Foundation of America answers these and many other questions in its brochure, "The Child Who Stutters at School: Notes to the Teacher." It and many other brochures are available online at the SFA's Web site, http://www.stutterhelp.org.

"Young children are busily learning to talk when they are between 18 months and 5 years of age," explains Barry Guitar, Ph.D., professor of communication sciences at the University of Vermont. "As such, they may make speech 'mistakes', such as effortless repetitions and prolonging of sounds. In most instances, this is very normal. If parents and teachers listen to and answer these young children in a patient, calm, unemotional way, the child's speech will probably return to normal.

"Some children, however, will go beyond the normal and begin to repeat and prolong sounds markedly," explains Dr. Guitar. "They may begin to struggle, tense, and become frustrated in their efforts to talk. These children need help."

A teacher who is concerned about a child's fluency should talk with the school speech clinician, as well as the parents to make sure everyone's approach to the child's speech is consistent, the SFA says.