Will my child stop stuttering? What the Experts say…

It can be very difficult for parents to watch their children struggle with speech.

Close to 5% of young children begin to stutter. Almost 75% of them will outgrow stuttering on their own within 12-24 months.

While we don’t know for sure which children will stop stuttering on their own and which will continue to stutter, we do know that the severity of the stuttering does NOT predict the likelihood of the stutter continuing.

 

Children are more likely to naturally outgrow stuttering when:

  • There is no family history. More than half of children who stutter have a family member who stutters. A family history indicates a risk for persistence.
  • The stuttering started early. Children who begin stuttering before 3.5 years are much more likely to outgrow it.
  • The stuttering has lasted less than 6 months. 75% of children who start stuttering will stop on their own within 12-24 months.
  • Your child is a girl. Three to four boys continue to stutter for every one girl who continues to stutter.

Some children have a strong reaction to their stuttering, which can create more tension and more struggling. It is actually the way children feel about themselves and their communication abilities, rather than the type and frequency of their stutter,  that will determine how much difficulty they will have communicating.

You can help these children feel less fear about getting stuck on their words by letting them know it is okay to have some difficulty when learning to talk. Just like it’s okay to fall when learning to walk, or spill when learning to drink.

 

To prevent development of negative reactions and help your child feel more ease:

  • Model a calm and accepting response to your child’s stuttering. Children learn how to react to stuttering by watching how their parents react. Remember that acceptance does not mean you are giving up on fluency.
  • Listen to your child’s concerns about speaking. Focus on the message and not on how he is talking.
  • Talk with your child about stuttering. Be supportive and straightforward to help your child understand what is happening.
  • Avoid putting your child in a position where he feels pressured to talk. Ask less questions and make more comments.
  • Create “special time”. Set aside five minutes each day for one-to-one playful time with your child, with no expectations for speech. Listen patiently and pause before responding to your child’s words.

Because of the high percentage of young children who do outgrow stuttering, some professionals may suggest waiting to see if the stuttering stops on its own.   However, therapy is recommended more often than not in order to give the 25% of children who won’t outgrow their stutters a greater chance to recover from stuttering. 

The decision to pursue treatment for stuttering should be based on the likelihood that a child might continue stuttering without intervention. It is recommended that parents consult with a Speech-Language Therapist to determine their child’s risk for continued stuttering.

 

Therapy by a clinician who specializes in stuttering is recommended when either :

  • The child appears to be at risk for continuing to stutter, or
  • The child or parents are concerned about the child’s communication abilities.

A treatment program designed to reduce children’s stuttering and improve their overall communication skills will include both child-focused treatment and Parent Training.

The Stuttering Foundation is an excellent resource for parents. In addition to providing helpful information, they also offer an international list of clinicians who specialize in stuttering.

And HERE is an excellent booklet written specifically to help parents support their young children who stutter.

An invitation to do less this season

As far back as I remember, Christmas time always evoked mixed feelings. Being Jewish, my family celebrated Hanukkah, which sometimes coincided with Christmas and other times did not.
 
My school hosted a number of Christmas related events and I envied the many families who celebrated what I believed to be a glamorous and universal holiday. Hence the mixed feelings. It all looked so great but I just wasn’t a part of it.  ANY OF IT.
 
Whichever holiday they are celebrating, toys and games are important to children. But… do you remember all the gifts you received over the holidays? Me neither. 
 
As adults we hardly remember the toys we so desperately wanted or received as gifts. What we remember most are the memories created from hanging out and laughing with family.
 
This year don’t lose sight of those things that build lasting memories. Choose to do less. Spend more time together playing and sharing stories. Invite your children to join you baking and decorating.  Create new family traditions your children can look forward to year after year.
 
Involving children in activities promotes language and social development. These are the interactions that will provide the basis for future reminiscence and story-telling.
 
For those of you still working on your gift list, I recommend you lean towards items that will provide your child with opportunities to use their language skills and learn through discovery.

Consider age appropriate novels, magazine subscriptions and cookbooks to promote a love for reading.  Consider toys that encourage turn-taking, guessing and word-finding to promote language development.
 
Here are some SLP endorsed gift options for all ages. Each item supports literacy, pretend play, guessing, turn-taking or vocabulary expansion.

1 – 3 years

     

Dot Magazine
An illustrated ad-free magazine for preschoolers. It is full of fun stories and activities. Use it to build pre-literacy skills and teach kids that reading is fun.


Munchkin Fishin’ Bath Toy 
The magnetic rod makes it easy to catch sea creatures. Use it to introduce “who” questions “Who did you catch?” and “where” questions “Where is the fish?” Use this toy to promote pretend play.


Fisher-Price Little People Caring for Animals Farm
Every kid should have a farm!! This toy encourages pretend play and conversations between the farmer and the animals. Animals are perfect prompts for teaching toddlers how to make different sounds and appreciate the connection between sounds and their meanings.

I Spy Eagle Eye Game
Young kids love searching for images. This helps develop vocabulary, particularly concepts to describe where they found each picture.

3 – 6 years


The Gruffalo
One of my all-time favourite children’s books. If The Gruffalo is not on your book shelf, order it now. One of the best books to help your child understand the unwritten text by encouraging them to consider what each character is thinking.

Dot to Dot Count to 25
Help your toddler guess what the image will be. Kids get super excited to eventually see the image for themselves. These dots follow each other in a logical manner.

 

Hape Dynamo Kid’s Wooden Domino Set
Model concepts (in-front/behind, first/last, close/far, fast-slow) and verbs (build, turn, push, fall, watch, repeat).


Cate and Levi Puppets
Handcrafted in Canada. Hand puppets stimulate pretend play and turn-taking. Puppets also encourage interaction, through scripts, which is the breeding ground for language development.

6 – 9 years

 

 

 

Wee Hee Hee
Who doesn’t love to giggle? These illustrated jokes strengthen metalanguage skills by using “wordplay”, a humorous use of words with more than one meaning.

 

 

 

National Geographic – 5,000 Awesome Facts About Everything
Kids can’t resist this book with fascinating fun facts. If you want to inspire your child to read more, just leave this bad boy lying around the house.

Scattergories
This game is so much fun and requires that kids search their own vocabulary to create lists of words within various categories. Guaranteed to keep you laughing.

Klutz Make Your Own Movie Kit
For the child with lots of Lego! This kit inspires creativity. This is stop-motion animation made easy. Among other skills, children explore their language abilities as they learn how to write scripts.

Maybe you don’t have any children on your gift list, but you’re looking for a way to give back. One way to connect with the true spirit of the holidays and make a big difference in the lives of children is by supporting The Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau.

They are a non-profit organization with one goal, to ensure every child has a smile on their face Christmas Day. They collect and ship gifts to Community Agencies across metro Vancouver. Simply choose an item and give the gift of play.

Parents of late talkers are often surprised to learn they can help more by talking less.

The term “late talkers” describes children who have a limited spoken vocabulary at around 2 years of age. Keep in mind that first words appear close to 12 months, and children begin combining words prior to 2 years (refer to my blog on Communication Milestones).

If at 18-20 months your child uses less than 10 words, or if at 21-30 months they have fewer than 50 words and aren’t combining words, despite otherwise typical development, then you have a “late talker”.

Because early language development provides a foundation for the development of later language and literacy skills, late talkers are at risk for problems with language and literacy skills in elementary school and beyond.

One of the first things I do when evaluating a child with reportedly limited speech is to observe the parent and child playing together. More often than not these parents “over-talk” during play.

I attribute this “over-talking” to two phenomenons. First, most of us are to some degree uncomfortable with silence, so we organically fill the silent spaces. Second, many parents have the misconception they need to model more words and talk more for their children who are behind in speech output.

Talking more is NOT helpful to Late Talkers because:

  1. Talking more results in longer phrases.  Consider matching the length of your utterance to your child’s level or just above your child’s level. So, if your child is using single words, model single words or 2-word combinations.
  2. Talking more results in less turns for your child. Consider taking short turns saying one thing, then pause, allowing your child an opportunity to take a turn, whether that be verbal, non-verbal or just a sound.  Looking expectantly at your child and staying quiet sends the message it is her turn.
  3. Talking more results in no words being highlighted. Consider using fewer words, preferably “early vocabulary” words, such as nouns and specific words that would be useful for your child to communicate. Using too many words makes it more difficult for words to stand out and get noticed. It is the equivalent of using a highlighter to mark every word on a page. Think about which words you wish tohighlight.
  4. Talking more results in less connection. Consider what your child can pay attention to. If there is too much talking he will likely tune you out. If he has tuned you out then you have lost the opportunity to connect. Without shared attention, your child will not observe how you made the word and the words will have no meaningful connection.

Ways to SUPPORT your Late Talker:

  1. Get on her level physically. Sit on the floor and get eye-to-eye.
  2. Observe what he is interested in and comment on that. Offering words that connect to what he is paying attention to makes them meaningful. And he will be more motivated to attempt saying words related to his own interests.
  3. Match her language level. Match the length of your utterance to her level or just above her level. As I suggested above, if she is using single words, model single words or two-word combinations.
  4. Pause after you take a turn and look at him expectantly. Wait. Wait some more. Waiting is harder than you think!
  5. Listen for her sounds and words. Acknowledge them by repeating and adding one more sound or word. “Dog…. hungry dog”
  6. Resist the urge to request him to repeat you. Children learn best through natural interactions, not repetition.

Be patient, take note of small changes and celebrate progress. Progress can appear in many different ways… more eye contact, more joint play, more attempts, more relevant gestures, more copying, more sounds, more words. Be open to progress in its many forms.

And as always, if you suspect that your child’s speech and language skills are behind (check my blog Communication Milestones), I highly recommend consulting with a certified Speech-Language Therapist.

Expand Language with Water Play!

Summer is here! It’s hot!  But, that’s okay for preschoolers because they LOVE playing with water. Sprinklers, water balloons, water blasters, water parks, kiddie pools and the beach. I remember when my kids were little we set up the sprinkler under our trampoline for cool bouncing on hot summer days.

However you enjoy water together there will be opportunities to explore, engage in turn-taking, expand vocabulary and talk about concepts related to water.

It is my personal belief that so long as your child is safe and not causing any damage, let them play with water however they want. What is particularly nice about water play during summer is that it takes place outside! This means no mess and minimal clean up.

One of my favourite water games to play with preschoolers is Sink or Float. You can use it to provide your child with new information and help them think about the world and how things work. This game is also well suited to play with multiple children as it is easy to take turns.

To play you need a large bin filled with water, some random small toys and objects, and a bowl to put your objects in. I like to gather both indoor and outdoor objects. Walk around the yard hand-in-hand choosing small items such as leaves, moss, grass, sticks and flowers. Next, take one object at a time and ask your child to guess if it will  Sink or Float  in the water. Then place the object on the water’s surface and watch what happens together.

Kids go crazy for this!  They love guessing and witnessing the results.

When playing Sink or Float, get down on your child’s level so you are eye-to-eye. Give them opportunities to comment on what they have observed. Ask questions and wait for their answers. Stimulate your child’s language by modelling these water-related conceptual words:

“wet – dry,  light – heavy,  under – on top,  deep – shallow,  slow – fast”

To help your child understand a new vocabulary word use it at least a few times during play, and then use it again later in other contexts outside of water play.

When  Sink or Float  gets old there are many other ways to play with water together in the summer. Water the garden, run through the sprinkler, use water and a sponge to “clean” things outside, or pretend to be Karate Kid using water and a paintbrush to “paint” the fence. Whatever activity you choose, remember to follow your child’s interest, model water-related vocabulary, give them opportunities to take turns and respond to their words.

There is no right or wrong way to play with water. Be prepared to get wet, have fun and connect.