How to correct stuttering in children

Stuttering is the constant repetition of words or sentences while speaking. Stuttering is a language defect disease. There are many reasons for stuttering. For example, it may be caused by genetics, neurophysiological reasons, or excessive psychological stress. Although stuttering makes it difficult for patients to speak, it can be corrected through certain methods.

There are 13 million stuttering patients in my country. The prevalence rate among adolescents is about 2%, and the prevalence rate among children is even higher, reaching about 5%, especially in the 7-year-old group. 80% of stuttering patients are male, with a male-to-female ratio of 3.9:1. The average age at which stuttering begins is 3 years old, and a few develop after 6 years old. In medicine, stuttering is usually divided into three categories: first-word difficulty type, word repetition type, and sentence interruption type. Some severe stuttering patients often also have grinning, muscle spasms and various accompanying movements.

Due to the lack of necessary knowledge about stuttering, many parents have serious misunderstandings about children's stuttering problems, which greatly affects the treatment of stuttering. Although children who stutter do not have the same psychological burden as adults, some parents, eager to see their children succeed, develop strong anxiety and repeatedly remind, criticize, or even beat and scold their children for their language. The language formation of children aged 0-3 years old must go through the process from hearing and speaking to understanding. Especially for children around 3 years old, parents must "coldly deal with" their children's stuttering at this time. Excessive correction and scolding will instead cause "negative reinforcement" and may cause stuttering to continue into adulthood.

To correct children's stuttering, we must focus on listening and communication. This is because children’s language mechanism is still imperfect, and when they are eager to express their thoughts, they are prone to speech fluency and rhythm disorders. When children draw out the words or repeat themselves when speaking, parents should listen carefully and not rush to correct them. Parents should wait until the children finish speaking and slowly train their listening and speaking skills through repeated pronunciation and speaking.

It should also be noted that mental factors account for a considerable proportion of the causes of oral diseases in some children. Some parents want their sons to become successful and their daughters to become outstanding, so they are particularly strict with their children when they are very young, which causes the children to be under long-term mental stress and even causes mental trauma, which can cause stuttering.