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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 21 Oct 2004
Time: 14:56:28 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.12.221
Dear Ali, Over the years, this has been a question that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have answered differently. A generation ago, most would have advised parents to simply ignore the stuttering and perhaps given them some handouts about how not to make an issue of stuttering. The rationale was that stuttering would not develop if the child were never made aware of it. Today, we know that advice to ignore stuttering, although not entirely inappropriate advice, does not square with all of the facts. The best estimates of recovery without treatment in preschoolers who start to stutter are as follows. If all cases of stuttering, including those cases in which stuttering lasts only a few weeks or months duration, are considered, 80% will recover without any formal therapy. If only those children who have been stuttering for at least 1 year are considered (excluding the cases of short duration), the "spontaneous" recovery rate drops to 50%. With these figures, two schools of thought about when parents should bring their stuttering children to the attention have emerged. Some suggest waiting for one year or so before seeking therapy, unless the stuttering is getting markedly worse. Others recommend that parents take their child to an SLP as soon as stuttering occurs or is suspected. (Importantly, both approaches assume that the SLP is knowledgable and compentent in the area of childhood stuttering, a situation that unfortunately is far too often not the case.) I subscribe to the latter approach, i.e., seeing children as soon after stuttering onset as possible. Yes, it means that some chldren may be seen unnecessarily, and there will be some expense involved. Nevertheless, there is little or no solid evidence that good therapy makes chldren worse and the risk of waiting can be greater. Also, we know that the earlier we can intervene in preschool stuttering, the more likely the child will grow up not even remembering the problem. I should hasten to say that waiting one year for most preschoolers will not necessarly mean that stuttering will become chronic. But is often does mean that parents and others may not get good advice on how to react to the child's stuttering shortly after it begins. That's my two bits worth. I hope it helps. Ken