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What You Need to Know about Stuttering

by Stella Robinson

Language development in your baby initially begins with literacy training, and you as a parent can contribute to your child's language skills as you both interact each day. Your child will learn to understand and enjoy language. Talk frequently and naturally with your child. All you have to do is babble back to your baby, and your baby will join in the fun and babble back to you too. Language development in your baby starts with literacy training and addresses speech abnormalities that may arise.

Your child is expected to develop language development skills at an appropriate age and thereby function within certain time periods. If your child is talking and it's evident that he or she is stuttering, then you should seek an evaluation to determine how this speech abnormality can be addressed.

Stuttering Dynamics

Stuttering emerges in speech pattern when there is a disruption in the production of speech sounds while words are being spoken. The condition is also referred to as disfluency. Disfluency does impede a child's communication process because of the repetitive nature of stuttering.

What Causes Stuttering?

Genetics is considered to be one of the reasons why the condition of stuttering develops. Studies by researchers also identify both structural and functional neurological differences in children who suffer from stuttering. Neurophysiological factors in the studies identify deficiencies in left hemisphere gray brain matter. Reduced white matter integrity is also identified in the left hemisphere as well, but the studies do not identify any increase in white matter tracts in the right hemisphere.

Diagnosing Your Child's Stuttering Condition

Only a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP) can evaluate and identify your child's stuttering, since stuttering involves more than just your child's observable speech. The SLP additionally assesses how a child reacts and copes with disfluency. When the SLP ends the evaluation, he or she also comes to a conclusion about how the condition affects your child's activities of daily living.

Treatment For Stuttering

Treatment for your school-age child can prove to be a very complex situation. Each child's case is unique, and treatments are heavily based on the impact stuttering has on your child. Multiple goals may be based on increasing fluency and reducing secondary behaviors that affect your child. Goals of increasing self-confidence and effectively managing bullying, in addition to improving communication skills, play a major role in treatment for stuttering. Therapists also focus treatment on diminishing the unfortunate impact of stuttering on your child's life.

For more information, talk to a professional like Evergreen Speech & Hearing Clinic, Inc.

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