For a parent whose toddler starts to stutter is awfully worrying but it is not at all uncommon. It usually happens when a child is between 18 months to four years old.
According to Psychology Today, stuttering can start all at once and usually ends just as quickly as a few days or could be a little longer as weeks or months. But parents should not feel discouraged or let anyone make fun of a child.
If a stuttering child is bullied or being laughed at, he will start speaking less due to the embarrassment and he may develop anxiety as well. When children gets anxious, they start blinking their eyes really quickly and their voice's pitch gets high as well.
As per the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, five out of ten percent children face stuttering problem and most of them get normal once they start growing and get better at their language. If a child is three years old and he or she stutters then a parent should just wait and see.
Parents do not need to seek an expert's advice or go see a doctor since stuttering is really common among children. Stuttering is a child's way of experimenting with words. Once they get adept, they'll start speaking fluently and the stuttering will be eventually gone.
One important thing that a parent should remember when their toddler stutters is to patiently listen. When a child is trying to talk and he or she is stuttering in between, a parent should just act normal and should keep the eye contact as well.
Do not help them finish their sentence nor provide words to assist them. The reason? Letting them finish on their own no matter how much time they take induces confidence in the child to speak their heart out.
