Get Your Child Help With Stuttering From An Educator
As an educator teaching at a primary school, from time to time I would have a student in my class who was a stutterer. My goal was to provide whatever help with stuttering possible to make school as positive an experience as possible. Here’s what I did to achieve that goal as well as a few suggestions that you as parents can do.
One of the very first things I would do was to have a meeting with the parents to discuss their child’s stuttering problem. The meeting had two distinct benefits.
It helped me to better understand the child because I was able to get a lot of information from the people who knew him best; his parents. And I like to think it helped the parents because they were able to see that I was supportive and wanted to help their child.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that your child’s teacher is not concerned, if they don’t get in touch to arrange a meeting right away. Some educators like to take some time to get to know their students before meeting with parents. However, in a case like this, it might be a good idea to meet with the teacher right away.
Be sure you share whatever information you already have. This is a partnership and knowing what works and what doesn’t can help both parties. Teachers will never find a better source of information than the parents of a youngster who stutters.
For instance, you might be a bit surprised to find out that many younger children who are stutterers like to participate in classroom discussions as well as answer questions. Their stuttering just doesn’t seem to bother them.
Teachers will generally avoid calling on stutterers because they don’t want to center them out. But if your child feels comfortable responding, let her teacher know.
It was lucky that my school district hires speech and language personnel. They are there to work with students who are referred by the teaching staff. Unfortunately this service is not available in all districts. So be sure that you get in touch with your school to see if there are speech services offered. If there are, inquire as to how to get a referral going.
Because I had a meeting scheduled with parents early on in the year, I was able to get a referral going right away if the child was not already in a speech program in the community. And if they were, I was able to get permission from the parents to ask the agency for any reports or recommendations.
One important point is that often any community based service is offered only until a child enters school. Then it’s up to the school to maintain the service. However, inclusion at the school level may not be automatic, so you may want to follow-up with this at your child’s school.
Once your child starts to work with the speech pathologist or therapist, there will be certain drills or activities that you can use at home. This will reinforce what the speech personnel is focusing on in their sessions. For instance, the therapist may be working with your child on a different way to breathe.
This type of thing requires a lot of practice before it becomes automatic. That’s where you come in. It’s vitally important for you to work on these follow-up activities with your child because sessions at school will be limited.
If you have a child who stutters, the school can provide help with stuttering. Even better is when parents and teachers work together to provide support and encouragement.
Is it really possible to stop stuttering? You’ll be encouraged to find out that in most cases the answer is yes. Visit http://www.cureforstuttering.org/ to find out how.