Helping Children Develop Healthy Attitudes Toward Stuttering

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Helping Children Develop Healthy AttitudesToward
Stuttering

• J. Scott Yaruss, Ph.D. Stuttering Centerof
  Western Pennsylvania
• University of Pittsburgh

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Wait a minute!!!

• What do you mean by,Healthy AttitudesToward
  Stuttering ?!?

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Attitude Matters

• Stuttering can have a profound impact on
  childrens ability to succeed in life
• Butit doesnt have to be this way!
• As NSP parents, you know that the most successful
  adult speakers are those who have been able to
  accept their stuttering
• Like stuttering, the process of developing
  healthy attitudes can begin in early childhood

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It is not stuttering that holds people back...

• It is how people reactto their stuttering

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How should we expectchildren to reactto
stuttering?
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Feelings about Stuttering

• It is normal for children to have emotions and
  feelings about their stuttering
• It is also normal for you to have emotions about
  feelings about your childs stuttering

Children dont always understand their
feelingsyou can help!
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The Traditional Role of Parents

• In speech therapy, parents typically receive lots
  of advice about how to help children speak more
  fluently
• Slow down your own speech
• Pause before speaking
• Shorten and simply your sentences
• Dont interrupt the child
• Dont tell the child to slow down

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Helping children speakmore fluently is good...

• but its not enough!!!

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Sowhat elsecan parents do?
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Parents Can Also Help Children...

• Understand what they are doing when they stutter
  and how to change it
• Learn how to react to stuttering and how to deal
  with other peoples reactions
• Interpret what it means to have a speech disorder
  and (for older children) accept it
• Feel acceptance regardless of their speech

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Parents CanWHAT?!?

• Many parents have their own issues and concerns
  about stuttering, making it difficult to react
  supportively
• Plus, parents are consistently told not to react
  to their childrens stuttering
• Do nothing at any time, by word or deed or
  posture or facial expression, that would serve to
  call attention to interruptions in (your child's)
  speech.
• (Johnson, 1962)

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The Parents Dilemma

• Watching children stutter is hard!
• It is nearly impossible to watch our children
  struggle with any difficulty without trying to do
  something--anything--to help them
• So...the advice to just ignore it is in direct
  conflict with our parental instincts
• The advice is wrong...our instincts are right!

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Is It Really Okayto Talk about Stuttering?

• In a wordYES!
• There are no published reports of a relationship
  between discussing...stuttering and sustained
  increases in the frequency or severity of
  stuttering
• --Zebrowski Schum (1993)
• Children who stutter do not respond adversely
  when parents provide feedback about their speech
  fluency.
• --Lincoln Onslow (1997)

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Keeping Talking in Perspective

• Talking is just another motor skillyoung
  children need to develop
• It is perfectly normal for young childrento make
  mistakes when learning to talk
• Children make mistakes when learning every other
  motor behavior and we accept it without concern
• For older children who stutter, we need to
  recognize that stuttering is normal for them

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Why Talk about Stuttering?
I felt isolated and frustratedlike stuttering
was something to be ashamed of
This problem is so awful that my parents
can'tbear to talk... about it.
Some quotesfrom adultswho stutter
--Rustin Cook (1995)
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Why Talk about Stuttering?

• Break the Conspiracy of Silence(Starkweather
  Givens-Ackerman, 1997)
• Help children understand stuttering
• Help children feel more comfortable about their
  speaking abilities
• Help children learn how to react to stuttering
• Help to normalize stuttering

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Okay, So What Should We Say?

• (It depends)