How to Help Your Stuttering Child

My son was recently evaluated for speech and was told he had a very mild stutter. The speech pathologist asked me several questions and seems to believe that at almost 4 years old, his is not a permanent stutter but could be from living in a home with an older brother who likes to speak for him, where mom and dad are rushing around to pick up kids, drop off kids, get to work, make dinner and his tiny system just gets stressed. So for me I found several things that have helped tremendously and the more we follow these steps the less and less I see him stuttering. I can not say if this will help with children who do not outgrow stuttering or have it as a serious issue, but if your child does stutter and need s speech therapy but not on an intensive level like mine then you can also help out at home with these simple ideas:

1. A great tip the speech pathologist gave me was to use a signal, I am always on the phone making appointments, talking to different people, etc. or will be out in the store and see someone I know or start a conversation with someone, my son will want my attention and will try to talk to me, in the past I would simply tell him "wait a minute" or ignore him or tell him to be quiet until I am done talking, and as he would keep calling for me his stuttering would get worse. So now when we are in those situations and I hear him call to me, if I am at home on the phone I will walk over to him and lightly touch his arm, just put my hand on his arm and give him a nod, so he knows I hear him and he knows he will have my attention shortly, and when we are out in public I pretty much do the same, I will take a second to look away at the person I am talking to and just give a quick nod or acknowledgment to my son, I am yet to run into someone who has problem with this as they can clearly see I am only looking away from them for one second to tend to my child. He has learned to be more patient and not feel the need to fight for my attention, which always caused him to feel more nervous and stutter.