Stammering/Stuttering
Anyone who is unable to say the words that he or she planned to say is stuttering. Anyone who gets stuck on a word or part of a word, or has to repeat a part of it, or has to repeat a phrase, is stuttering. We all do it sometimes, don’t we? But if this stuttering starts to happen often enough to be a problem, it is time to do something about it.
Stammering and stuttering are two words for the very same disorder. 1% of the population suffer from a stammer/stutter at some stage of their lives.
Children often begin to stutter between the ages of two and five, often just as they are beginning to use many more words and sentences than they have ever used before. In many cases this non-fluency is a normal part of learning to talk. If it begins to be a problem to child or parents, a speech and language therapist can offer advice.
SpeechContacts recommends that, if your child is stuttering and you are at all worried, you look for help. You could start with the British Stammering Association at www.stammering.org, or you could contact your local speech and language therapy department, local authority, children’s trust, primary care trust or NHS trust, or the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
The outlook is good. If children are given treatment within one year of beginning to stutter, 90% will learn to speak fluently. Our advice is not to wait and see, but to seek help as soon as possible.
If you are an adult and you have stuttered for some time, perhaps for as long as you can remember, you may wonder what it would be like to speak well and fluently. Maybe you would love to be able to manage speaking situations better? Maybe you have almost given up hope?
If you can travel to the West Country you may like to contact SpeechContacts. We have a unique Somerset based service for people who stutter that has been developed through twenty five years of experience and success in helping people who stutter. We would love to talk to you about how our special methods can help you speak much better.
The British Stammering Association website has plenty of really useful information on all sorts of different ways to work on stammering, as well as lots of support from other people who stutter.