Did you know that James Earl Jones stutters? Now you do.
Since there was such a positive reaction to my Dealing With Stuttering post, I thought I’d milk the moment and focus now on dealing with stuttering in children. Stuttering is thought of as being more of a children’s problem, but it can happen to anyone of any age. Stuttering in children has a variety of causes, and affects each child differently. All kids have trouble learning how to talk because they are learning a new skill. You can’t expect to be an Olympic athlete overnight, and you can’t expect to learn how to talk overnight. If you think your child is having a problem with stuttering, please see a doctor or pediatrician.
Trouble With Explosives
There are always things you can do in dealing with your children’s stuttering. One of the things that helped me as a child stutterer (and adult stutterer, too!) is to read the book Trouble With Explosives by Sally Kelly (1976). This is one of those children’s books that really should be available to adults, too. It is such a good book, I wish I wrote it. Anyway, it is a very realistic and humorous account of what it is like to be a pre-teen girl who has a particularly bad stutter and has to go to therapy. It can also help someone who doesn’t stutter know what it’s like.
Record Their Voices
When I was about 12, my stutter was particularly bad. I hadn’t a clue why. On a whim, I recorded myself doing a pretend radio show and played it back a few times. I then could determine which words and sounds gave me the most trouble, and then I could either avoid those words or sounds or look in the mirror to see how my mouth was forming these sounds. Until I taped my voice, ALL talking seemed pretty hard. In dealing with children’s stuttering, don’t force them to tape their own voices and work on their speech. I did it on my own when I was good and ready to.
Read Out Loud
Another great way of dealing with children’s stuttering is to have the child read a story (their own or someone else’s) when no other people are around. I would read to my toys and to the cats. There is a group of therapy dogs now called Reading Assistance Education Dogs (READ) whose job it is to listen to children read. Toys and animals do not judge the child and help give those mouth and self esteem muscles a needed workout.
Look At Celebrities Who Also Stutter
Although having celebrities be a child’s role model is debatable, it is always good to know that stuttering doesn’t mean the child is going to be ostracized. Celebrities who stutter or who have some sort of speech impediment include James Earl Jones (whose most famous role is the voice of Darth Vader), Peter Gabriel (my hero — we have the same speech problems!), Jimmy Stewart (yes — THAT Jimmy Stewart) and Winston Churchill (you might have heard of him).
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Write a Comment»The books that helped our family of stutterers were “Self Therapy for the Stutterer” and “Advice to Those Who Stutter.” A good children’s book is “Sometimes I Just Stutter.”
Cheers for the suggestions, Bud. I wish those books were out when I was a kid. I’m always on the lookout for a good book.
Over here in the UK we have the British Stammering Association http://www.stammering.org/ which is also an excellent resource. Another very important tip for kids is provide a calm speaking environment and to focus on the positives rather than the negatives, e.g. that was said very smoothly read rather than try to read smoother.
I’ve read that the way James Earl Jones stopped stuttering was when his teacher made him stand in front of class every day and speak until he became comfortable and didn’t do it any more. Certainly not the most gentle way to do it, and I doubt a teacher would be allowed to do that any more, still, might give some insight into how to refocus the child and get them to reprogram their speech patterns.
Perhaps that’s why one of my 6th grade teachers made me read aloud in front of the entire class every day. It didn’t work with me. :-0 But perhaps, as you suggest, it distracted him from realizing he was stuttering. I liked to read aloud as a kid to my pets and my toys, but not to my classmates. Thanks for taking time to comment, Kevin
Such an approach would surely only work if the teacher worked with the pupil to deal with the feelings behind the stammer. Otherwise its very brutal and will surely have a low success rate, potentially doing more harm than good. I don’t avoid my stammer or potential stammering situations yet despite 40 years of speaking “practice” I still stammer. Its not a case of practising - its a case of dealing with root causes and correcting those.
Good points as ever, MV. My 6th grade teacher was pretty brutal “Rena, just keep on reading OR ELSE!” Not recommended. :-0
Its criminal, Rena, really is.
Very good points.. I had always thought this approach would be more damaging than it was helpful (maybe that’s why I remember that anecdote some many years since I first heard it) I remember in third grade I had a friend who stuttered, he had to do a speech in front of the class and it took 20 minutes before the teacher just took him outside and had him do it by himself with no one around. I don’t think most teachers understand the root of the problem, they just think it’s nervousness or a bad habit.
Parents can download a brochure from this web site http://www.stutteringhelp.org/DeskLeftDefault.aspx to give to teachers so that they are informed about stuttering. Even public school speech teachers will tell you that they were not trained in helping a stutterer and most don’t feel comfortable working with a student who stutters. The Stuttering Foundation of America lists specialists in stuttering under referrals on their web site.