Stuttering in toddlers or children is a pretty common issue. No matter what, this makes parents usually get over concerned, questioning their child’s mental state and making them worried and anxious on a possible speech stuttering speech disorder, which may affect child’s future development.

Well, I have great news!

Recently I have discover this great speech therapy program to treat stuttering in toddlers.

The truth is that stuttering in toddler is completely natural. As the children’s young brain is getting fed with more and more information daily he becomes more confident of himself and of his abilities.However, there are  times when thetoddler is simply asking too much, causing his already intensively busy brain to hamper.

During the development of child’s speech skills, he will often challenge himself in trying new sentences or words. As his brain is not always able to supply these words instantaneously, his speech starts to hamper as the toddler is searching for words. To put it shortly, the brain has problems syncronizing with the muscles and nerves that control speech. This type of stuttering is completely benign and will usually fade away as the child ages.

When stuttering in toddlers may be a concern:

Not all stuttering patterns disappear with time. If you notice any of the following behavioral or speech patterns in a toddler, it might be a sign of possible speech disorder that needs stuttering therapy:

• Excessive prolongation of sounds (”ccccccan I have wwwwwater?”).
• Syllabile repetition (”can I have wa-wa-wa-water?”).
• Substitution of a weak vowel for a stronger one in syllable repetitions (”can I have wuh-wuh-wuh-water?”)
• Signs of extreme struggle and tension when your child is trying to speak.
• Avoidance of speaking due to the difficulty associated.
• Rising pitch and/or loudness as the child ‘hangs’ on a word or syllable.

Noticing these traits does not necessarily imply your toddler will stutter forever. Many cases of stuttering resolve themselves with age.

If your child starts stuttering, remember to always keep stress levels to a minimum. Address your child in a calm manner and create an ambience of smooth, calm conversation. Your child should keep exercising speech in a funny way: making up rhymes, singing songs and playing speech involving games. Make sure you give them your undivided attention and convey to them that you’re listening to what your child has to say, allowing them to express their thoughts.

What not to do:

Never complete a stutterer’s sentences, even when you know what he or she is about to say.

Do not attempt to force your child to stop stuttering by asking him or her to repeat the sentence “without stuttering this time”. This will not work, is humiliating and will severely hurt self-esteem. For much the same reason, you have to make sure you never seem disappointed or annoyed by the stuttering.

Stuttering treatment in toddlers

Children who show signs of middle to severe speech disorder, need to be evaluated by a speech therapist. Most cases of stuttering can however be treated to some degree by behavioral and/or speech therapy. Many methods are available, some better than others.

Its most common manifestation is the repetition of sounds and words, with pauses in which the subject is unable to make any sounds. But it also refers to longer hesitations and pauses before blocks of speech or the prolongation of certain vowels and sounds. The stutterer makes words sound longer than they should, repeats sounds, syllables, words or sentences, gets tense and anxious when trying to speak and has difficulties when starting a new word or sentence.

All of these may create a severe impact on a person’s emotional and social state, fear of being caught stuttering in social events and therefore, anxiety, isolation, low self-esteem and stress, mainly because is wrongly associated with a lower level of intelligence.

I will will try to offer you some solutions and advice to overcome this annoying disorder in my blog, guiding you towards some informations, articles and efficient products that will solve your stuttering problem.