Stuttering

Here are some tips to encourage your child's fluency at home:

• Reduce your speech rate. Model unhurried speech and appropriate pauses.

• Do not tell the child to "slow down" as this is not an effective strategy.

• When your child is speaking, give them your undivided attention.

• Reduce the amount of questions in conversations with your child. You can provide comments to their productions modeling the reduced speech rate.

• Model turn taking in conversation as a family without interrupting one another.

• Praise your child for communicating their ideas unrelated to their fluency.

• Set aside special time throughout the week during which the pressure to speak is removed from the activity. Follow your child's lead regarding speech during this activity.

Something to consider: Some aspects of a student's stuttering experience are visible, popping above the surface. Other aspects of their stuttering experience are invisible to the outside world.