How Parents and Teachers Can Help Prevent Stuttering (or Stammering) In Children

The young child who repeats and hesitates in speak­ing
is not stuttering or stammering. All children repeat
sounds and words. It is a normal way for a growing
child to talk. Some children do more repeating than
others. All of us repeat and hesitate at times even after
we have grown up.
Most children begin to repeat before they enter
school. Some begin after they enter school. There are a
number of children in whom these repetitions, prolon-­
gations, and hesitations do not become noticeable until somewhere around the fourth, fifth, or sixth grades.
Parents and teachers should feel no concern about,
nor pay any attention to, these repetitions and hesita-­
tions in the growing child unless they are accompanied
by marked effort and struggle, or by self-consciousness
and embarrassment.
Most parents and teachers mistake or confuse
simple repetitions, prolongations, and hesitations with
stuttering.