Having had a stutter for eighteen years I am fully aware of just how badly this form of speech impediment can affect a person’s life. I am now a father of a seven year old boy and even though I have been fluent for twelve years, I often worry that my son may also develop a stutter.
I wonder if there is something in our genetic make up. Perhaps I am being a bit over the top with these negative thoughts; I would however not want my worst enemy in the world to be cursed with a stutter, let alone my son.
After working extremely hard to overcome my own stutter I am now fully aware of what is required to be able to speak fluently and also of the reasons why people do in fact stutter. I am therefore confident that my son will not develop a stutter as I am always looking out for the signs etc.
After I started stuttering at the age of four my parents eventually sought help via our local speech therapist. They tried to reassure my parents that my stutter was likely to go away on its own accord and that most children, especially boys, develop a stutter at some stage of their childhood.
He continued to say that only a small percentage of these boys continue to stutter over the long term. My mother and father were greatly relieved to hear this, unfortunately as you may have already read on this website, my stutter did not “just go away on its own accord”, in fact it was to continue to haunt my life for many more years to come.
It is estimated that one percent of the adult population in the UK has a stutter; this therefore suggests that a lot of children who have this form of speech impediment do not in fact eradicate it in childhood.
There are now various forms of therapy for children who have a stutter.
For children who are under the age of ten, a speech course may be too intense and therefore some form of self-help home based therapy may be more beneficial.
