Stammer Therapy for Children
We offer stammering therapy for children from the age of 2. Our aim in therapy is to see your child thrive in their communication abilities and self-confidence.
Stammering vs stuttering: what's the difference?
You may have heard both of these words used. Speech therapists often use these words interchangeably and they actually mean exactly the same thing. Generally stammering is a term mainly used in the UK and stuttering is generally used in the USA and Australia.
How does stammer therapy help my child’s stammer?
A common misconception about stammer therapy is that it can cure a stammer. Stammer therapy can help improve a stammer, but our first goal is for you and your child to feel ok about their speech. Therapy aims to build your child’s self-confidence, reducing anxiety and avoidance behaviours. It also helps you with any anxiety you might be experiencing as you interact with your child.
All of this becomes a strong foundation on which to improve the fluency of your child’s speech.
How does stammer therapy work for children aged 2+?
We start stammer therapy for children aged 2+ with an indepth parent consultation online, lasting 1.5 hours. At this session, we take time to understand your child’s history. This helps us to identify together the factors that are impacting on their stammer.
The therapist will also ask you to record and share a short 5-minute video of your child speaking. Occasionally, it might be appropriate to meet your child face-to-face, but for many children this isn’t necessary.
At the end of this session, we will feed back our observations and strategies for home. For some parents of children this age, the feedback and strategies are enough to start with. They feel clearer about what is happening and more confident about helping their child develop. Other parents choose to go on with therapy for their child.
If you do go on with therapy, this is booked in blocks of six sessions, between the parents and the therapist. In these sessions, we will think about interaction strategies and family strategies. We will work on techniques for increasing your child’s confidence, tackling strong emotions and so on. Parents find that these sessions reduce their own anxiety about their child’s speech. They also feel more confident about supporting their child as they grow.
How does stammer therapy work for children aged 7+?
The first thing we will do is spend an hour with your child, assessing their stammer. This can be an online assessment or in the clinic. We explore your child’s communication and how they feel about their speech.
​
This is followed up by an online session with the child’s parents or carers. At this session, we take time to understand your child’s history. This helps us to identify together the factors that are impacting on their stammer. At the end of this session, we will feed back our observations and an ongoing plan for home.
After the assessment, therapy runs on an ongoing weekly basis. We recommend you aim for 6 sessions initially. These sessions are run with the therapist and the child, and can be in the clinic or online. The aim of therapy is to help your child feel ok about their stammer and become a confident communicator. Therapy includes things like:
-
Psychoeducation around stammering
-
Communication skills & communication confidence
-
Problem solving around communication
-
Psychological approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy
We tailor therapy sessions specifically to your child’s needs.
How do you assess my child’s stammer?
Stammer therapy is a holistic therapy: it draws together both a clinical understanding of your child’s stammer and a psychological understanding of the impact the stammer has on their wellbeing.
The assessment is therefore far more wide-ranging than simply applying tools to measure your child’s stammer. While the therapist will draw on clinical tools during the assessment, this takes place as a part of understanding how you and your child feel about their stammer and the ways it impacts them.
Sudden stammering - what causes it?
When your child suddenly starts stammering it can be a really worrying time. It can feel as if it has come from nowhere. The struggle to get words out can be painful and upsetting to watch in a child who previously spoke easily. It is natural to want to identify the cause. If you can find the cause then surely you can fix it? Unfortunately it is not that straightforward.
Stammering is a complex, multifactorial neurodevelopmental condition. Whilst it can seem like the stammer has come from nowhere it most likely has arisen from an interplay of factors that have coincided at once. We would always recommend a thorough assessment with a therapist experienced with stammering.
A therapist will help identify the factors that might be at play and talk through with you what might happen with the stammer and how to help. Parents usually feel reassured, more confident and more knowledgeable after this first appointment. Sometimes we will recommend therapy straight away and sometimes we will advise you to try a few strategies and contact us again in 6 weeks.
My child has already been assessed or is already receiving NHS therapy. Can I still book with you?
Yes, you can! If you are currently receiving NHS therapy for your child, we will work closely with our NHS colleagues to ensure a consistent, effective approach for your child. If you have assessment documents from prior assessments, you are welcome to send them to us before beginning therapy.
