Early Intervention Still Best Option

 

Concerned parents who want to help their children who stutter have a new resource to turn to. The Stuttering Foundation has released a new 16-minute video, 7 Tips for Talking with the Child Who Stutters, that offers practical strategies parents can use to support their young children’s communication skills and build their confidence.

 

In the video, a group of experts talk compassionately and directly to adults about how to promote easier talking as they interact with preschool-age children. The  professionals offer simple, easy-to-do tips that parents can begin to use immediately.

 

“We believe that this project will make a real difference for parents who are frightened and feel helpless when their child first begins to stutter,” says Lisa A. Scott, Ph.D., of The Florida State University. “They think it is their fault and wonder what they have done wrong. The video should help ease their fears but also focus their efforts on doing things that will help the child.”

 

The experts in the video were chosen by the Foundation because they are “among the world’s leading hands-on therapists working with preschool children who stutter.”  They include speech-language consultants Frances Cook and Willie Botterill, Elaine Kelman from the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in London, Lisa Scott of The Florida State University’s School of Communication Science and Disorders, and Ellen Kelly of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

 

In September, the video will be distributed to 53,727 pediatricians nationwide with an accompanying book, The Child Who Stutters: To the Pediatrician (5th edition). More on that in the next newsletter!

 

The book and video are also available to parents online.

 

“These tips are intended for the preschool child,” says Stuttering Foundation’s Jane Fraser. “But honestly, they are wonderful for children of any age.”