10 tips for helping the child who stammers

1. Listen to what your child is saying and not how s/he is saying it.

2. Keep looking at your child when s/he talks. Try not to look away.

3. Try to give your child your full attention when s/he is talking to you. If you are busy, ask him/her to wait.

4. Don’t finish off sentences for your child.

5. Try to slow down your own speech. Try to allow pauses when speaking. This slows down the pace at which you talk.

6. Don’t ask your child to slow down as this can be frustrating for your child and is also quite hard to do.

7. Don’t ask your child to stop and take a deep breath. This may work in the short-term, but it is not an effective strategy.

8. If your child is showing signs of frustration, do acknowledge this. You can say, “That word was a bit hard to say.” Talking about stammering will not make it worse.

9. Set aside a special talking time with your child. During this time, you focus on what your child is interested in, and on listening to your child. Try to minimise other distractions such as T.V., radio, phones, other people.

10. Talk to someone about how you feel about your child’s speech. If you feel upset or anxious about it, your child will pick up on this.