When Children Stutter: The Stuttering Foundation Offers Tips for Teachers

As school approaches, parents and students may face anxiety and fear of being ridiculed or teased during the new school year. This is especially stressful for the child that stutters. Five percent of all children will go through a period of stuttering lasting six months or more. Most will out grow the condition. Only 1% continues into adulthood, accounting for 3 million American adults who stutter.

The Stuttering Foundation has published a new brochure to address the issue of stuttering in the classroom, providing guidance for teachers and caregivers. The brochure addresses: teasing, reading aloud, calling on the child in class, and other concerns that teachers face on a routine basis when a child stutters in the classroom.

Preschool and Kindergarten children are still learning to talk and often make speech mistakes, or disfluencies. This is normal and even expected within the age group. For older elementary children, these disfluencies may be the beginning of a speech difficulty often referred to as stuttering. They may repeat and prolong sounds, struggle with speaking, and become tense and frustrated in their attempts to express themselves orally. These children need help.

"Any time teachers are concerned about a child's fluency," notes Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation, "they should consult with the school speech clinician as well as the parents to make sure their approach to the child's speech is consistent." She advises teachers, "Talk with the child privately and reassure him or her of your support; let them know that you are aware of their stuttering and that you accept it - and them."

Teachers often have questions about how to handle speaking and reading aloud in the classroom and struggle with other students who may tease the child who stutters.

The Stuttering Foundation offers these tips for teachers.