How to Support Stammering 

“mmmmiss ca ca can you help me?” 

 Does this seem familiar to you? If you’ve recognised this type of dysfluency with your pupils it is likely that they have a stammer. 

Having a stammer might cause pupils to reduce their interactions with others to avoid communicating in social environments. This is often a direct impact of a stammer, which, as with most SLCN, can cause a decline in their confidence levels.

 

What is Stammering?

Stammering (or stuttering) is when an individual repeats sounds or syllables when trying to express themselves. The characteristics of stammering are:

• Repetitions – most frequent in children who are starting to stammer; single sound, syllable or whole word repetitions (e.g. b-b-b-b-ball, and, and, and, and, be-be-be-be-because etc).

• Prolongations – like the sound is stretching out e.g. sssssssee what I mean?

• Blocking – stops the flow of air or voice, the sound becomes completely stuck and nothing comes out

• Cluttering – speech that sounds rapid, unclear and/or disorganised.

• Facial tension – in muscles around the eyes, nose, lips or neck

• Extra body movements – may occur as the child attempts to ‘push the word out’ e.g. stamping feet, shifting body position, lifting the head up or tapping leg

A stammer involves difficulties with the fluency of speech. There is no ‘easy fix’ for a stammer, however, there are a number of strategies and interventions that can be used to support individuals. 

Do’s and Don’ts 

Now, you’ll want to consider what might be effective when communicating with an affected individual, and what might add pressure to (or even frustrate) them.

Do:

1. Create a relaxed atmosphere for the child 
2. Be patient and give the child time to communicate 
3. Maintain eye contact and demonstrate good body language whilst they are communicating 
4. Take turns when communicating 
5. Be open with the child or young person about their stammer 

Don’t:

1. Don’t ask too many questions, instead comment or provide choices
2. Don’t interrupt the child when they are trying to communicate i.e. finish their sentence or guess what they are trying to say
3. Don’t persuade the child to speak aloud in front of groups of people 
4. Don’t talk negatively about the child’s stammer with others Don’t tell the child to stop and start again when they are stammering 

How can you support stammering in educational settings?

There are a variety of ways we can support children with Stammers within an education setting!

To start, make sure you are always giving the child time to finish what they are saying. If you jump in and try to finish their sentence, or cut them off, you are teaching the child their voice and words do not matter as much as yours. Most SLCN can have a detrimental impact on a child’s confidence, so we want to avoid anything that might decrease this.

Make sure to model this to the whole class, too!  They also need to be aware to wait and listen when the child who stammers is speaking. Being a good conversationalist goes both ways! 

 Try to find ways for the child to gradually join in with small group/whole class activities if they find this difficult. You will need to make sure the first 2 pieces of advice are in place before this comes in! Try using their peers that they are most comfortable with, or demonstrate good patience. Slowly introduce new members to the group/form bigger groups in which the child gets to speak. Eventually, the child will be partaking in whole-class discussions!

Ensure the environment they are in is safe, kind and non-judgemental. This will aid in building the child’s confidence when speaking publically.

The final step is to raise awareness around stammering among other members of staff. Whilst teachers and teaching assistants are the child’s most interactive members and staff, all staff need to be aware! This means dinner ladies, pastoral care and custodial staff members, too. 

 

How common is stammering? 

So, how common is stammering? 

Stammering actually affects around 1 in 100 people! This means it’s pretty common. 

In the UK, around 8% of children will stammer at some point in their life. 3% of the UK adult population stammer, too! However, many children will recover either naturally or with support.

Stammering is 4 to 5 times more likely to affect boys than girls. You might first notice it between the ages 2-5 years.

That being said, when children are going through times of new vocabulary and sentence expansion they may often stammer! This usually stops around age 4.

Celebrities that stammer

Stammers aren’t just limited to us normies! There are many famous people that also stammer.  

Some celebs that stammer are:

• Ed Sheeran 

• Stormzy 
• Rowan Atkinson 
• Joe Biden
• King George VI
• Bruce Willis 
• Samuel L. Jackson

This just goes to show that stammers don’t need to get in the way of our life goals! 

Having a stammer will not impact your future or what you would like to work towards in life. It is vital to reiterate this with the individual who stammers, as building their confidence is important. 

 

How can Chatterbug help?

If you’re looking for ways to boost your and other staff’s skill sets, Chatterbug is here to help. 

We offer an Overview of Stammering Training that improves your understanding, helps you find other resources and gives you support systems to use within your school. The main aim of the training course is to raise awareness around stammering and to provide you with key recommendations to support those individuals. 

This training is essential to create equal opportunities in your classroom. 

You can secure your place on the course here.

Early intervention is also key in supporting these individuals’ speech, language, and communication development. Chatterbug has a variety of services to assess, support, and intervene with these individuals. 

You can also check out social media for all our best tips and other useful information about SLCN.

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