Stuttering is a speech disorder in which a student may repeat his or her words and appear to get stuck on words. A child who stutters has a difficult time producing smooth speech. A child who stutters may also make repetitive movements with his or her face or body during a moment of stuttering. These are called associated motor behaviors. Associated motor behaviors may include eye blinking or unnatural jaw movements. A child who stutters may feel self-conscious about his or her speech and may be afraid to speak for fear of stuttering. Stuttering is not a disorder that can be cured but with the help of a speech-language pathologist, a child who stutters can learn to reduce his or her stuttering and learn techniques that can help him or her produce fluent or smooth speech. On this page you will find homework calendars to use with your child as well as a link to the stuttering foundation website with some helpful tips for parents and teachers. There are many tools that are available for students who stutter. Please speak to your speech-language pathologist about what techniques he or she may be using to help your child control his or her stuttering.
Famous People who Stutter: The celebrities below have all talked about their struggles with stuttering growing up as a child. As you can see, they have achieved lots of accolade and fame despite their struggles with a stuttering problem. (Pictured left to right-Joe Biden 47th Vice-President of the United States of America. Ed Sheeran-Grammy winning singer and songwriter/recording artist. Marilyn Monroe-Famous actress and model in the 1950's. John Stossel-Famous television reporter for ABC news. Julia Roberts-Golden Globe and Academy Award winning actress. Tiger Woods-Famous professional golfer.
Air flow:
This is a technique that is used on an exhalation for speech sounds that start with the "wh" or "h". For example, the student would take in air through the nose and would release the air to say a word that begins with the "wh" or "h" sound (i.e. where, how, etc.).
Gentle Phonatory Onset is a technique where a student says the first sound in his or her word very gently and easily with little to no tension in the mouth, lips, tongue, jaw or throat. For example, instead of pressing the lips together really tightly for a "p" sound in the word "pop," the student would very easily and gently press their lips together with hardly any tension or air exploding out of the mouth for the "p" sound in pop.
Rate Reduction through Syllable Prolongation is a technique that is used to help slow down a student's speech. When students who stutter speak fast, they tend to have more occasions of stuttering. During Rate Reduction through syllable prolongation, the student is stretching out their words and syllables to slow down his or her speech to become more fluent or smooth. Imagine your words and syllable being stretched as if you were stretching a rubber band.
These free calendars can be found at Teachers Pay Teachers vendor name: Speech Rocks. These discussion topics can be done at home at the dinner table or when talking with your child after school. Ask your child the discussion question and have them use their smooth speech technique or techniques to talk to you about the topic.