Let’s Talk About….Stammering

Dysfluent speech often described as stuttering or stammering is when there is a disruption of the timing of speech. This can be by repetition of sounds, syllables or words, sound prolongation and/or blocking on sounds. (Bloodstein and Bernstein Ratner 2008). At times, everyone’s speech can be a bit bumpy. As we pause to think about what we want to say, or trip over words when we have more complex ideas to express, our speech can lose its flow. However, for some children and adults the repetitions of sounds, increase in hesitations or difficulty getting the ideas out, is more prominent.

Overview

Definitions: Understand the difference (or similarity) between the terms “stammering”, “stuttering” and “dysfluency”.

Fact V’s Opinion: Share experience of what we have learned from social media. How does this compare to the evidence and research?

Compare and Contrast: How do we know what the difference is between developmental dysfluency, acquired dysfluency and word finding difficulties?

Applications at Home and at School: How does what we know impact on how children may present at home and school?

What Should We Expect?: What could be the knock-on impacts on other aspects of development?

Support: Discuss and share the best ways to support fluency in everyday interactions and conversations

N.B: each of sessions comes with an advice sheet to share with professionals and family.