Stop Stuttering

As an educator at a primary school, at times, I had students in my classroom who stuttered. My heart went out to them and so I made it a point to try to provide help with stuttering and make their school experience as positive as possible. Here are some of the things I did and what you as a parent can do to help.

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 gave me insight into the problem from his parents, the two people who knew him best, along with a better understanding of their child. I feel the meeting was also helpful for the parents because I was able to let them know that I was going to be supportive of their child and that I really wanted to help.

Now if your child’s teacher does not initiate a meeting with you it doesn’t mean they don’t care. Some teachers like to get to know their students before contacting parents. But in a case like this, meeting sooner rather than later may be better for your child. So, soon after the school year begins, call and request a meeting.

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 may be surprised to learn that many younger children who stutter, still like to take part in class discussions and answer questions. They don’t feel stressed or embarrassed about it.

A teacher will often try to avoid calling attention to a child who stutters so they may rarely call on them to answer during class. But if you know that your child likes to take part and doesn’t feel pressured, by all means let the 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 always made it a point to schedule a meeting with parents early in the school year, I could start a referral quickly if the child wasn’t already involved in a speech program outside of the school. If the child was in a speech program in the community, I got permission from the parents to request recommendations and reports from the outside agency.

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.

When your child begins to work with speech personnel, there are going to be activities you can do at home to help. These activities are designed to reinforce what the therapist is focusing on during their sessions. For example, if your child is being taught how to breathe properly when they speak, they will need lots of practice before this change becomes automatic.

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 your child stutters, know that there is help with stuttering available at the school level. The best case scenario is when teachers and parents work together as a team to give the child encouragement and support.

Find out about the latest stuttering therapy treatments and techniques and take steps to stop your stuttering. Visit http://www.cureforstuttering.org/ for up to date information.

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If you have a stuttering problem, finding out how to stop stuttering can be a life changing experience. Because this speech disorder affects so many adults and children, in the past few years, there has been a push to discover new information. Much of this information has come from speech therapists and researchers, but many practical suggestions have been offered by those who have managed to stop stuttering. Here are 2 more of their best tips.

Tip #1 - Visualize difficult words in your mind.

For any stutterer, there are words that give them a lot of trouble whenever they try to say them. They’re different for every stutterer. But whether they’re short or long, they are always approached with some apprehension on the part of the stutterer.

One effective way to approach each of these words is to visualize the tricky word in your mind. Examine it one letter at a time. After you do that, then picture yourself saying this word confidently and correctly. Once you’ve had success in your mind, try it out loud. Over time, this will help take the power away from that word.

It’s a good idea to practice this technique at home so you can quickly run through a difficult word in your mind before saying it out loud during a conversation.

Tip #2 - Practice saying the beginning sounds of difficult words.

The very beginning of a word or sentence is often the hardest part for a stutterer. If you can get past that, you are often okay.

A good strategy is to spend time at home learning to break words into parts. Practice saying each part of a word separately until it flows easily for you, and then put an entire word together.

Once you have a word mastered, do the same thing for a short, two or three word sentence. The more you practice the better this will work because you’ll become more confident in how a word should sound. In time, this will become automatic instead of something you have to work at. When that happens, you’ll notice that you speak more fluently and stutter less.

Never give up hope that you will find out how to stop stuttering. In fact, here are two more tips for you to try. These have worked for others.

Is it really possible to stop stuttering? You’ll be encouraged to learn that in most cases the answer is yes. Visit http://www.cureforstuttering.org/ for more information.

Stuttering childrens' issues, communication disorder, Disorders, family concerns, how to stop stuttering, language disorder, self help, Speaking, speech problem, speech therapy, stop stuttering, Stuttering, stuttering help

If you stutter or your child stutters, you know all you want to do is find a way to stop the stutter. And yes, it really is possible. These how to stop stuttering tips have been compiled from suggestions made by researchers, speech therapists, and even former stutterers. Here are 3 of the best ones.

Tip #1 - A stutterer must be encouraged not to speak too fast.

A stutterer seems to speak very slowly. But they are actually trying to talk as fast as they can. They just want to get the words out before they stutter. Unfortunately their efforts backfire and actually cause them to stutter more.

When a person stutters, the words get dragged out, so it takes them a long time to finish what they’re trying to say.

But it won’t work to tell a stutterer to slow down. That just creates more anxiety. Instead we can model the right pace by talking in a slow, relaxed way. By slowing down the rate of speech, over time, stuttering can be reduced or even eliminated.

Tip #2 - Read aloud.

An interesting fact is that stutterers don’t usually stutter when they are reading. So use this to your advantage if you stutter. Read out loud at a steady pace. Over time this can help you stop stuttering when you are talking.

Why does it work? It’s because when you read, you don’t have to think about what you are going to say. So you learn to internalize the pace you can comfortably speak at without stuttering. Do it often enough and you can train your brain to accept this pace as the right one. This will lead to a much smoother delivery of words when you are talking.

Tip #3 - Learn to breathe properly.

Stutterers don’t breathe properly when they speak. They often inhale when starting to talk when they should be exhaling.

To train yourself to breathe properly, take a deep breath before you try to speak. Then exhale as you speak.

It’ll take practice for this to become automatic. But once it does, you’ll right away feel more relaxed when you talk. The more relaxed a person who stutters is, the less they tend to stutter. Learning to regulate your breathing is one of the best ways to stop stuttering.

If you stutter, know that you don’t have to suffer forever. Today, stuttering can be overcome. Start by using these tips to help you figure out how to stop stuttering.

Find out about the latest stuttering therapy techniques and treatments and take steps to stop your stuttering. Visit http://www.cureforstuttering.org/ to get the facts.

Stuttering childrens' issues, communication disorder, Disorders, family concerns, how to stop stuttering, language disorder, self help, Speaking, speech problem, speech therapy, stop stuttering, Stuttering, stuttering help

If you are wondering if there are easy ways you can stop stuttering, you are in luck - here are two easy things you can do to improve your stutter.

Okay, first we must realize that the majority of stuttering is a physical problem which is brought about by social triggers. These triggers are what make you stutter in certain words, or in certain situations and the key to stopping your stutter is to override those triggers so that you can speak clearly.

Stress is overwhelmingly the number one reason most people stutter. The bad thing here is that the more you stutter the more stress you feel and the more you stutter - see the cycle? The key then is to alleviate the stress over speaking before you begin to speak.

But how do we do that? Easy.

Think about it this way - shooting a game winning free throw is stressful for a basketball player, but they alleviate much of that stress before shooting the ball by going through a very brief pre-shot routine. The routine sets them at ease and gets rid of much of the stress before they take the shot.

Stopping your stutter is no different. You need a routine to get rid of the stress of speaking before you speak.

Here’s your pre-speaking routine.

1. Literally picture the word in your mind first

This is your practice shot. See the words in your mind, know what each letter looks like and sounds like. Mentally prepare to say the words out loud. This should help reduce the stress of speaking because your “practice shot” is setting you up to speak perfectly - before you say a word.

2. Visualize yourself saying the words clearly

Fist you visualize the words, now you visualize yourself saying them. This is no different than the basketball player seeing the shot go through the hoop before they take the shot. Seeing yourself be successful will help reduce the stress even more and will give you more confidence to speak clearly.

Use these two techniques every time you stutter and you’ll soon be more comfortable speaking and will be alleviating the stress of speaking before you actually talk.

Want to find out more about How to Stop Stuttering, then visit Haley Cardwell’s site on how to stop stuttering today!

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