What is stuttering you might ask?  As defined by a medical dictionary, stuttering is the action of talking with continued, involuntary repetition of sounds.  It is especially common when the speaker is trying to pronounce initial consonants of a word.  However, defining the medical definition of the word isn’t enough to fully understand it and how it can impact the person suffering from it.

Stuttering is a communication disorder that involves disruptions in the way a person speaks; this disorder can range from mild to severe.  The word “stuttering” refers to both the common speech disruptions that are produced by someone who stutters and the overall communication difficulties that people who stutter might come across.

Stuttering Causes

The exact cause of stuttering is unknown; however, studies from all around the world are seeking for answers to this multifaceted communication disorder.  It has been proven that stuttering is not a psychological disorder and isn’t caused by emotional issues.  Stuttering causes may come from genetically-induced circumstances and a variety of developmental factors that take place in early childhood.

Stuttering in Children

Stuttering is a common speech disorder in young children, aged between two and five.  For a majority of children, stuttering is just a part of learning how to put words together in order to form sentences.  Stuttering may come and go, but most children will outgrow this habit on their own.  However, stuttering that persists well into a child’s adolescence may require some intervention from a professional speech pathologist.

Help your Child Stop Stuttering

The best course of action to help your child stop stuttering is to let them develop at their own pace. You should also communicate with them frequently so that they can pick up on normal speech patterns.  However, if their stuttering seems to persist, it is important to seek professional help from a speech-language pathologist (SLP). SLP’s can assess your child and determine if there is risk of a long-term problem.  A course of action can be plotted from there.