Help Kids (2-6 years old) Stop Stuttering Once And For All

 Start Doing These 5 Things to Help Your Stuttering Child Today

(Look, I want to earn your trust so hopefully it’ll lead to you buying my full “Stuck to Speaking” handbook. To do that, I’m gonna give you five top tips of what you can do to help your child and afterwards, I’m gonna ask how I did and if you wanna buy. Sound good?

1. Track Your Child’s Stuttering

Think back to when you first noticed your child stuttering and write it down (you can remember any holidays, seasons, or big life events surrounding the onset to try to pinpoint it). From that date, you can calculate your child’s “time since stuttering onset,” which is a big number used to make big decisions about speech therapy.

Then, start tracking your rating of your child’s “stuttering severity” on a 10-point scale over time by answering the question: “How severe is your child’s stuttering, with 0 being “no stuttering”, 1 being “extremely mild stuttering” and 10 being “extremely severe stuttering?”

This will help you know if what you’re doing is working and when you need to get more help. Here’s the tracking sheet I use from inside “Stuck to Speaking” you can have for free to get started. There’s another variable I always recommend tracking too, find out what it is inside “Stuck to Speaking.”

2. Slow Down Your Own Speech

The next thing you can do to help your child speak with less stuttering is not to try to change their speech at all. It’s to change yours. When you slow down the speed of your speech when you talk to your child, their brains have more time to work better and they start to speak with less stuttering.

You can do this in four big ways. My go-to is to "Slow Down to 75% Speed.

“Soinsteadoftalkinglikethistellingthemaboutgoingtoseegrandma...”

“Taalk a bit more liike this, taking more tiime to speak more comfortably aand slowly.”

Just imagine taking your foot off the gas in your car and you’ve got it.

Start doing this when you talk to your child and I can almost guarantee you they will start stuttering less immediately. I have three more ways I like to slow down my speech you might like just as much or better, find out what they are inside “Stuck to Speaking.”

3. Don’t Put Your Child “in the Hot Seat”

You’re probably pretty ding-dang proud of your child, so I’m sure you’ve said things like, “Tell Grandma what you did last night on the potty!” or “Can you tell Kay Kay what you thought of the splash park?” But putting them “in the hot seat” can really increase speaking stress, and thus, stuttering.

One way you can take your child out of the hot seat is to make comments instead of grilling with questions. Instead of “What’s this?” “What color is that?” “What sound does a cow make?” “What does a pirate say?” make a comment on all those things instead of peppering with all the questions. Like this: “This is a cat!” “That dog is brown.” “A cow says, “Mooooo!” “This is a pirate. He goes, ‘Arghhhhhh!’” This’ll the communication pressure way down and bring their stuttering down too.

Secondly, don’t make them perform. Instead of: “Tell Grandma what you did yesterday!” making your child’s eyes grow wide before stuttering their way through it, get rid of the expectation that they perform for anyone and everyone at the drop of a hat. Only make them perform if they want to.

I have eight more ways your can dial down communication pressure so your child will speak with less stuttering waiting for you inside “Stuck to Speaking.”

4. Celebrate Easy Speech

Your child, I’m sure, says some things fluently. When they do, celebrate that with them and reinforce it. This external feedback will help nudge their brain speak more fluently in the future.

You could say: “That seemed so easy for you to say, way to go!” “Wow, that all came out so smoothly! You should be impressed with yourself.” or “You just said that without stuttering at all! Must feel great.”

Pointing out fluent speech, naming it in words, and cherishing it or them in some way encourages brain change towards fluent speech by providing positive reinforcement for it. Want more ways of how to word this praise? You’ll find ‘em inside “Stuck to Speaking.”

5. DON’T Do These Things

When we see (or hear!) our child struggling, we want to jump right in and fix it. In the case of stuttering, though, some of the common “fixes” we naturally jump to don’t always help. Like these:

1. Don’t tell your child to “just slow down.” Instead, model a slow, unhurried speed yourself. They’ll follow your lead.

2. Don’t say the common but trite “just take a breath,” “think about what you want to say,” or “calm down” tips. While well-intentioned, they can actually increase the communication pressure your child feels and make them stutter more.

Find the last big no-no on page 44 of “Stuck to Speaking.

BONUS: “When Should I Get a Stuttering Speech Therapy Evaluation”

When might you want more help from an expert in person? Here’s the one page rubric I have inside of “Stuck to Speaking” to help you know when it’s time to get a stuttering speech therapy evaluation, my gift to you.

So how’d I do? Did I earn your trust?