How to judge whether a child has stuttering, and how should parents correct stuttering?

Many parents want their children to be good at speaking and smart. As their children grow up, some parents may find that their children are not very fluent in speaking, or even have great difficulties in expressing themselves. So how do you tell if your child has stuttering, and how can parents correct it?

How to identify a child who stutters

Judging by age: when the baby is over 1 year old, he can only pronounce vowels; at 1 and a half years old, the pronunciation is still incorrect and the syllables in the words are not distinguishable; over 2 and a half years old, he cannot speak; over 3 years old, he cannot speak into sentences; over 5 years old, he will replace difficult pronunciations with easy ones.

Signs of speech: The speech is not fluent, and the rhythm, speed and intonation of the speech are abnormal; the child has difficulty speaking, feels embarrassed, and is self-aware of it; the voice is too loud or too soft; the intensity of the voice is disproportionate to the child's age and gender, and the voice has a nasal tone, etc.

Adding words and rhythm: adding some words that should not appear in the sentence when speaking. For example: I want "um...". Irregular rhythm: A sentence is said in the middle of a pause where it should not be, but it suddenly stops.

Repeating the pronunciation of words and sentences: This can refer to the repetition of words, sounds, or phrases. For example, when you want to say "train", the child says: "ㄏ...ㄏㄨ...train", repeating the pronunciation of the phonetic symbol "ㄏ".

Broken words with prolonged sounds: unable to complete a word smoothly. For example: "play...toys", "play toys", "toy toys". Prolonged sounds: the pronunciation of a word is not repeated, but it is overly prolonged to bring out the next word. For example: "sugar~fruit".

Correction and change of meaning: When a child is speaking, he or she may find that the mistake was made in pronunciation or meaning. For example, "I want, I don't want to eat vegetables". Repeated expressions like this are unclear and make it difficult to determine the meaning.

The harmful effects of stuttering on children

Causes psychological disorders: Stuttering is extremely harmful to the physical and mental health of children. If children with stuttering realize that they are different from others, they are often prone to shame and cause psychological disorders.

Impact on social skills: Children are prone to fall into the situation of "the more they speak, the less clear they become, and the more they speak, the more they stutter", which affects the development of normal language communication and social interaction skills; on the other hand, babies who stutter are often ridiculed and laughed at, making them unwilling to speak.

Causes of stuttering in children

Genetic factors: The incidence of stuttering in a family can reach 36% to 55%, so some people believe that it is related to genetic factors and may be inherited by a single gene. Some people also found that stuttering patients and their relatives are more likely to be left-handed, and believe that stuttering is related to the dominant side of the brain.

Weakened nervous system: Children or infants have been exposed to harmful factors, such as maternal pregnancy toxemia, bleeding or physical diseases during the fetal period, or certain infectious diseases during the development process, which weaken the nervous system and affect speech function, resulting in stuttering.

Psychological factors: Stuttering in children often occurs after acute or prolonged mental trauma. Therefore, there are many theories that believe that mental factors may be an important cause of stuttering.

Imitation leads to stuttering: Some preschool children suffer from stuttering due to imitation. Children like to imitate others because they find it interesting to imitate others’ stuttering, thus becoming infected with stuttering.

How to correct children's stuttering

Avoid imitation situations: Parents should try to avoid contact between their baby and stutterers, and try to skip scenes with stuttering when watching movies or TV shows. For babies who have become accustomed to imitating stuttering, do not be impatient, and do not scold them, but be patient in guiding them.

Reduce children's stress: Try to avoid putting too much pressure on your children, and let them do what they can. Don't urge or scold your children loudly when they are talking or doing things, don't compare them with other children, don't be too strict, and encourage them often.

Build confidence in young children: Try to take your child out to see big scenes, give your baby more appropriate praise and compliments, help him build self-confidence, and your baby will recover quickly.

Avoid shocking and scolding: "Did I tell you this is wrong?" Being suddenly startled can easily cause a baby to stutter. In addition, if a baby is often in a shocking environment, such as a quarrel between parents, it may also cause stuttering.

Early speech: Babies who speak early, especially if they are under pressure to express themselves and demonstrate their language skills, are more susceptible to other factors besides stuttering.

Forced correction of left-handedness: If parents or kindergarten teachers force left-handed children (commonly known as left-handed people) to use their right hands to hold chopsticks, scissors, etc., it is possible that the brain will have functional confusion in the process of forming the language-dominant hemisphere, thus causing the baby to stutter.

How to prevent stuttering in children

Cultivate good habits: It is important to arrange children's daily life and cultivate good hygiene habits. Children's daily life should be regular, they should eat at the prescribed time, and ensure enough sleep and rest.

Patient and correct teaching: For children with stuttering, parents and teachers should patiently teach them how to speak clearly and express their ideas correctly. Do not force children aged 3 to 7 to memorize various long stories or poems that are not suitable for their language ability.

Music corrects stuttering: Rhythmic singing and reciting are helpful for children's language training. After listening to music, children are in a good mood and their attention is distracted from speaking. They are not only focused on the speaking movements, which makes it easier for children to say what they want to say.

Storytelling can improve the situation: parents can ask their children to narrate what happened in kindergarten; talk to their children about new books or TV series they have watched. It should be noted that parents and teachers should be patient and require children with stuttering to be calm and not panic.

Provide warm help: Parents or school and kindergarten teachers should provide warmth and help in many aspects to children with stuttering. People around them should not tease, laugh at or deliberately imitate the children's stuttering.

What should parents do if their children stutter?

Don't be discouraged by setbacks: Parents should never discourage their children because of stuttering, otherwise the young minds of children will definitely not be able to bear it. You can give encouragement and build up their confidence to overcome difficulties.

Smile expectantly: If stuttering occurs while communicating with your child, first of all, don’t be anxious, or at least don’t look anxious. Smile and look at him expectantly, give him an encouraging look, and let the baby finish what he is saying.

Don’t be impatient when speaking: Tell your children to speak slowly and not be impatient at appropriate times, try to speak short sentences, and teach them to say some common phrases, such as “Have you eaten?” and so on.

Hospital examination and treatment: If your baby has unclear speech, stutters, etc., and there is little effect after a lot of efforts, it is recommended to go to the hospital to check the tongue to see if there are any developmental abnormalities, such as a short frenulum, which requires appropriate treatment.