What is it?

Stuttering is something that affects the fluency or flow of speech. It begins during childhood and can continue right through a person's life. It is characterised by specific types of disruptions or disfluencies in the production of speech sounds that occur regularly and impact on communication. Most people produce disfluencies in their speech. However these are usually brief and generally do not cause a problem.

Characteristics and features of stuttering:

Speech containing stuttering often includes:

1. Repetitions of sounds, part words and words (e.g. "wh...wh... what are you d..d..oing" etc).
2. Prolongations or stretching of speech sounds (e.g. "whaaaaaaat are you doing" etc).
3. Blocking or struggling to get words out. This is when the mouth is positioned to say a sound, sometimes for several seconds before the sound is said. After some effort, the person may complete the word.
4. Interjections, such as "um" or "like" can occur, as well, particularly when they contain repeated ("u- um- um") or prolonged ("uuuum") speech sounds, or when they are used intentionally to delay the initiation of a word the speaker expects to "get stuck on."
5. Pausing for extended periods of time.
6. Frustration because talking takes a lot of effort.

Children who stutter may also have some "secondary" physical signs that occur, such as blinking, leg slapping and facial movements when they are trying to get out a word.

Common challenges experienced by children who stutter:

• For most children, stuttering occurs over a number of activities at home, school and work. For some children, a stutter only occurs in specific situations, like talking on a telephone, talking in front of groups, etc.
• A stutter can range from being very mild to being very severe. The impact of stuttering on a child is highly individual such that a mild stutter may cause one child extreme frustration and /or anxiety while a more severe stutter in another child may not affect them at all.
• Children who have a stutter will sometimes avoid situations in which the stutter is worse or hide their stuttering by choosing words that they are less likely to stutter on, or they will re-arrange their words and sentences to avoid a stutter. Sometimes they will pretend they have forgotten what to say or remain quiet.
• Stuttering can have a great affect on a child's confidence when speaking and may affect their social skills or how they relate to others.
• School age children will often report feeling embarrassed when they have to read out loud or talk in front of the class.

Management Strategies that help support a child at home and school:

• Give the child space and time to formulate what they want to say.
• Make sure they know they have plenty of "airspace" in which to say what they want to say.
• Reduce activity and background noise at home (e.g. turning TV's and music off, especially during talking times).
• Slow down your own speech when talking to the child.
• Avoid commenting on the stutter or bringing attention to it.
• Get down to the child's level when they are speaking with you (i.e. getting 'face to face').

Speech Pathology approaches and activities that can support the child or their carers include:

Lidcombe Programme for children up to 7-8 years. This is a parent-based program which focuses on reinforcement and rewards and requires the parents to spend time talking with their child each day.

For older children, focus is on:

• Breathing techniques, producing sounds slower and with less anxiety.
• Controlling and monitoring speech.
• Producing fluent speech at different language levels and within different situations.
• Helping the child and family to understand what is occurring and why and exploring how stuttering affects the child emotionally.
• Working together with the child to reduce anxiety, stress etc. that may be associated with the stutter.
• Liaising with pre-school and school staff to implement strategies and ideas into the educational setting