Question
My son is 7 yrs and 7 months old, and has been evaluated twice now, and been involved in some form of speech therapy for 4 years. He has also had his hearing tested, and it is normal. What my speech therapist, his teacher and my husband and I have all not
Answer
This is a great case question. First, I would make sure that your son has had comprehensive language testing. In cases like these, particularly if you see writing also impacted, you want to make sure you are dealing with pure stuttering, rather than disfluency that is caused by language formulation difficulties. The other possibility to rule-out is cluttering. This would be characterized by rapid speech that seems "disorganized" and difficult to understand from the listener's perspective.
It is important to remember that stuttering is marked by variability. There will likely be days where he seems to be almost completely fluent (for no apparent reason) and other days where it seems he is having trouble getting through a sentence (again for no apparent reason). That is the nature of stuttering. At this stage, treatment should consist of education (helping in the child become the expert about stuttering), helping the child speak more fluently, helping the child speak with less tension and struggle, and helping the child with their reactions so that stuttering does not limit them from participating in school or social situations.
Please visit our eLearning Library to view courses on stuttering/fluency and many other topics in the field.
Craig E. Coleman is a Clinical Coordinator at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Co-Director of the Stuttering Center of Western Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Pittsburgh. Craig is the current Past- President of the Pennsylvania Speech and Hearing Association and former member of the ASHA Legislative Council.
Carole Zangari, PhD, CCC-SLP
Dr. Zangari is a faculty member in the SLP Department at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Executive Director of the NSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities Satellite. She is co-author of TELL ME: AAC in the Preschool Classroom and co-edited Practically Speaking Language, Literacy, and Academic Development for Students with AAC Needs. Dr. Zangari teaches AAC courses to students at the master’s and doctoral levels, supervises in the AAC clinic, and coordinates the AAC Lab. She blogs at www.PrAACticalAAC.org.
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