Germany – How Parents Can Help A Stuttering Child

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    Germany – When 5-year-old Jasmin has a good day, she chatters away without faltering or having to try more than once to say certain words. On her bad days she struggles with a stutter. Then she says, “Mama, today’s a stupid day. My word doesn’t want to come out,” said Anja, Jasmin’s mother.

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    Anja, who is 35, also stutters. She heads a support group for stutterers in Stuttgart and has established a network for parents with a stuttering child. She noted that many parents are unable to cope with the speech disorder: “They don’t want to admit that their child isn’t perfect.”

    Adults do not always intuitively do the right thing when a child stutters. Walburga Bruegge, a speech therapist in the German city of Hamm and co-author of a book about stuttering in children, pointed out that it was often best to ignore the disfluency and not draw attention to it.

    “Otherwise you’re bringing up a matter that for the child may not even exist yet,” she said.

    To make an issue of a stutter conveys to a child that he or she is doing something wrong, agreed speech therapist Werner Rauschan, who noted that not finding the right words immediately or repeating a word several times did not mean that a child is a stutterer. Gradually learning to speak fluently is “a normal part of speech development,” he said.

    Because parents find it difficult to overlook snags in their child’s speech development, Rauschan advises them to seek counselling from a speech therapist — but not in the child’s presence.

    Though parents cannot influence stuttering, they can create an atmosphere in which their child feels comfortable speaking freely. “It’s important to not interrupt the child and to maintain eye contact when the child wants to say something,” Bruegge said.

    Parents can initially observe the child for a while to see whether the stuttering goes away. Speech therapy should begin if they notice the child avoids speaking or pronounces certain words with a great deal of effort. The therapy can be prescribed by the family doctor or an ENT physician.

    Pre-schoolers who stutter do so unselfconsciously, but this usually changes after they start school. “They develop a fear of speaking in front of class and the blockages become stronger,” Rauschan said.

    Speech therapists are not always successful in completely eliminating stuttering. The goal is to get stutterers to stop worrying about stuttering. “They should no longer find it stressful and learn how to deal with the blockages,” Rauschan said.


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    13 Comments
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    cbdds
    cbdds
    12 years ago

    This should be emphasized because many frum therapists are getting less cases and anything that will lead more clients to get services is great.

    eigner
    eigner
    12 years ago

    This is very common byte so called “sandwich” child who constantly gets interrupted by his/her peers before managing to make out a sentence, the child then loses its chain of thought and also tends to rush to complete the sentence without taking its time to think what words it wants to use… The solution is the give this child the feeling that your listening carefully and paying attention to what the child says. This little amount of time invested at the initial stage when the child is still young will go a LONG way in preventing a lot of money/time/ agmes nefesh in therapy afterwards.

    Joe-Shmoe
    Joe-Shmoe
    12 years ago

    I love this “professional” perspective! preschoolers do stutter unconsciously. older kids do so consciously. ” Enough with this stupid attitude. Let me explain. IMHO people have imperfections, kids have kindergarten grade imperfections and grown-ups have old syndrome imperfections. By covering up and saying I’m aware of it, but I won’t be open with my kid about it, is just being dishonest with your kid. Even telling your kid and pointing it out, if not done out of pure love with not the slightest bit of agitation, you can get everything from your son. You have to be tough, but not agitated! Encourage your kid to follow up with techniques which will help him overcome this issue. Tell him if you had this problem, (that will help!) How did you overcome it. Be open with your kid is the most important thing! “They should no longer find it stressful and learn how to deal with the blockages,” Accepting our imperfections is a real plan on staying with this imperfection. not giving up till we find a way around any mountain will get us to the ultimate goal! Iy”h for all us yiddin nachas from as perfect as possible nachas!

    shlomo1
    shlomo1
    12 years ago

    Singing songs with words is very helpful in getting rid of a stutter

    GEULA
    GEULA
    12 years ago

    All these articles about stuttering are worthless until you don’t bring a cure for it. It does teach pple patience and control; by allowing the person stuttering to have his/her time until the words come out. But it is the most uncomfortable position a person can be in ; listening and waiting for a word to come out of his/her mouth. It’s painful. The person suffering from it in return begins feeling like he’s bothering the listener and taking too much of his time or he thinks: “i’d rather not talk, it takes too much of me to talk”… I can’t think of another disability that is as uncomfortable as this. The person can be Einstein/brilliant. I’ve read so many articles about stuttering; when it’s inspirational about what a person has achieved despite his frailty or how when the person opens up his/her mouth to sing it disappears etc… then it’s nice to read. But articles like these are worthless and pointless. Bring us a cure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    username
    username
    12 years ago

    Music therapy can be great for stutterers. It is an established field using music to achieve non-musical goals, or to help other health care professionals to do their jobs. Singing and speaking involve different parts of the brain, and the singing part is trained to help the speaking part. I knew someone in college who had a horrible stuttering problem who could sing wonderfully in a choir.

    chaimbrooklyn
    chaimbrooklyn
    12 years ago

    There is unfortunately no cure as of today but you have more chances to get cured when your young, because when you become older its much harder to keep the techniques because you are more ashamed what everyone will say

    Hashem should help they should find a cure in the near future

    benvin
    benvin
    12 years ago

    My thoughts for a cure:
    When you have a a problem getting out a word, loosen your breath. I’m not sure how to exactly explain this, but the tonsils seem to get in the way, so if you loosen the breath it can help get the word out.

    12 years ago

    As a stutterer myself, I have a few things to say 🙂
    – From personal experience, ignoring the stutter will often make it go away.Much of stuttering (blockages) stems from self-consciousness. Hey, it looks weird! It sounds weird! I don’t speak the same way as any of my friends.
    When that difference is highlighted, more blocks will come up out of nervousness.
    -The tips that the article provided for speaking with stutters APPLIES FOR ADULTS, TOO.
    Interrupting someone who is stuck in a block is potentially devastating. Though rude generally, most emotionally healthy people will get over being interrupted. Interrupting even an emotionally healthy stutteresays, “What you have to say is not worth my time waiting for you to ease out of this block. Your slight speech impediment makes hearing what you have to say just not worth it.” Eye contact through the stutter is also important.
    – Many young children stutter, and more often than not, it disappears before the child notices he/she is not speaking correctly. Speech therapy should be provided just to make sure the stutter is dealt with before self-consciousness comes on (around school-age)

    12 years ago

    Also, though stutterers often don’t stutter when singing, that doesn’t really help practically.
    There is no cure. Different techniques work for different people. I heard of a phenomenal program where the stutterers have to do crazy things so they wontbe self-conscious anymore! Made me smile 🙂
    What worked for me is good ol’ speech therapy! In addition to patient and understanding friends and family. Though waiting for a person to finifh a stutter is uncomfortable (I’ve been on the other end, too), it is vital.
    Everyone wants to speak and express himself. By showing your friend that you want to hear what he has to say even if it takes a little longer, you show that your relationship means something to you.
    And when your friend knows that to you, he is a person and not a stutterer, he thinks of himself as a person, not a stutterer, and BE”H the stutter will drift away.