Over 3 million Americans today stutter, but exactly what causes stuttering remains largely unknown. Right now, researchers agree on just four main factors that may heighten the possibility of someone developing a stutter:
Stuttering in Children
Stuttering is relatively common for young children between the ages of 2 and 5 years old who are learning how to talk. For most children, the stutter will go away on its own once speaking becomes easier. However, some signs that may warrant an appointment with a doctor or speech-language pathologist include:
Neurogenic stuttering differs from developmental or neurophysiological stuttering because this type of stuttering only occurs after someone suffers an injury or disease in their central nervous system. These injuries and illnesses can include:
People at any age can develop a neurogenic stutter following one of these ailments, but it’s been shown that elderly people are most at risk.
Symptoms and Difficulties of Stuttering
Regardless of how someone develops a stutter, the symptoms remain the same. Stuttering is classified as a speech disorder that impacts the fluidity of someone’s speaking. It disrupts a normal rate of speech and it can be characterized by repeating words, sounds, or syllables. Common symptoms of stuttering include:
Struggling with a Stutter?
Adults who have been struggling for years with a stutter may find speech therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy useful. It is unlikely that the stutter will ever completely disappear, but they can learn how to reduce stress, practice relaxation techniques, reduce the frequency of their stutter, and much more. Adults who stutter can also benefit from talking to a therapist about any psychological problems that may have been brought on by the stutter. Easing anxiety, loneliness, or feelings of anger can help ease the physical effects of stuttering as well.
“Communication is the key to human interaction” -Amanda Schaumburgh, SLP
Becoming a new parent is the journey of a lifetime. From hearing their first breath, to watching their first steps, there are many “firsts” that will fill you with a sense of awe and amazement. Of course, one of the most exciting moments in the lives of new parents is hearing that first word. Not only is it a sign of growth and development, it’s typically pretty adorable!
While parenting does come with many exciting moments, it comes with a few challenges as well. For example, what if that first word never comes, or maybe it comes later than expected? Despite the fact that children develop at different rates, certain linguistic events are expected to happen within a particular time frame. When a child’s ability to communicate seems delayed, new parents are prone to start experiencing significant worries. Although these fears are completely understandable, there is no need to panic. There are professionals out there who can help.
If your child experiencing a delay in his or her speaking abilities, it may be time to see a Speech Language Pathologist. If you are unfamiliar with the term, these are licensed professionals who deal with speech impediments. Through intensive coaching and therapy, a speech pathologist can figure out the underlying cause of a child's inability to meet their speech milestones. If you would like to learn more about delayed speech and important speech milestones, we have developed this article. Here, we will highlight some of the warning signs that your child may benefit from a little extra help.
Lack of Social Interaction
Most parents look forward to their child reaching new milestones, especially when that child is an infant. Because each day brings something new, even the smallest achievements seem miraculous. It is particularly fascinating to watch you new bundle of joy interact with friends and family. As your baby grows, here are some developments you have to look forward to:
1. From 0-3 months: you should notice that your baby responds with smiles and coo-ing.
2. From 7-12 months: you will hear your baby react with pointing and clapping.
3. From 7-24 months: you should notice your child gaining the ability to respond to your talking.
If your child has passed these benchmarks without noticeable development of the above mentioned skills, a speech therapist will be able to uncover the underlying cause. Remember, early detection is always beneficial. If you are unsure whether or not your child is experiencing a delay that might indicate a speech disability, take him or her in to be checked out by a professional.
Inability to Understand Your Child
Studies have shown that between 18 and 24 months, parents should be able to understand what their children are trying to convey to them. Note: this does not mean your child will have a perfect vocabulary by age 2; we cannot stress that enough. Your child is expected, and even encouraged to make mistakes in syntax and diction. By making mistakes, your child is learning which structures are correct.
English is a difficult language, but, as linguist Noam Chomsky asserts, we are all born with a universal grammar. Simply stated, a universal grammar is the innate ability to learn language. By age two, if your child has not yet found his or her voice, seeking a speech therapist is highly encouraged. Every child has the ability to speak a language effectively. With that being said, about 1 in 12 children has some sort of speech related disorder. The need for extra coaching is quite common, and will produce significant results.
Difficulties With Sound Production
Between the ages of two and three, you should see significant developments in your child’s speaking abilities. Around this time, you may also start to notice that your child has difficulties producing certain sounds. Before you start to worry, remember that some sounds are more difficult to make than others.
For example, if your child has a hard time with trilling (rolling) their “r’s,” this is to be expected. On the other hand, if your child is experiencing difficulties with the bilabials, i.e the sounds P,B,K,G etc., it may be time to start seeking the help of a speech pathologist. To find out whether your child’s ability to produce correct sounds is further behind than average, check out some research on child language acquisition.
If you feel that your child is struggling to keep up, or has yet to reach the milestones that we have mentioned. Check out the Speech Pathologist at Oakville Wellness. Their SLP will work with your child on a wide range of needs and ensure that he or she leaves confident in their abilities to succeed.
Having a child with a developmental delay can be a very scary experience for a parent.
In a culture that values academic success more and more highly and measures it at younger and younger ages, any type of deficiency in academic ability can become blown out of proportion.
On the other hand, the impulse to provide a child the highest quality education is a very natural parental impulse. So long as it does not become unreasonable, taking a keen interest in the child's intellectual development from a young age is one of the most important parts of a parent's job.
Unfortunately, however, even parents with the best intentions often feel ill-equipped to help their children overcome language abnormalities. Every child is different, and it can often times feel impossible to truly understand the difference between a slight difficulty in a serious delay.
For example, when a slight speech impediment keeps your child from being able to read fluently, it could perhaps be nothing more than an innocuous (and undeniably cute) little developmental hiccup. That same speech impediment, though, might also mask a delay in reading ability that could potentially lead to serious consequences down the road.
In this context, it becomes important to understand the differences between the different types of developmental disorders in the realm of reading, speech, and language.
Let’s take a look at these three realms specifically, with an eye to understand the differences between the three, how they are diagnosed, and what you should do for your child.
The Difference Between Speaking, Reading, and Using Language
At first glance, speaking, reading and using language all seem to be different sides of the same coin. But upon closer review, the relationship between the three is strikingly complex, particularly during the ages in which all three abilities begin to develop.
Specifically, most childhood language use disorders fall into three distinct diagnostic categories: language impairment, reading disability, and speech sound disorder.
Let's take a look at each of these individually.
With these three definitions in mind, two things become immediately apparent.
First, it is clear that the three different developmental language disorders are distinct. A child could have one of the three without having the other two.
Second, it is clear that diagnosing a child with one of the three disorders independently of the other two would not be straightforward, particularly at certain ages.
Let’s take a look at this second point more specifically, on the difficulties with diagnosis.
Difficulties with Diagnosis
Speech language pathologists often have a difficult task ahead of them when trying to diagnose a young child who clearly has language difficulties.
For example, it would be impossible to ascertain if a child has a reading disability before they have been instructed how to read. However, the very act of instructing a child how to read might be difficult and/or delayed if a child had language impairment.
Furthermore, as we mentioned in the introduction above, a child's difficulties in producing spoken language while reading (caused by a speech sound disorder) could potentially cloud a parent’s ability to judge whether their child is developing reading skills at the appropriate pace.
To be even more specific, consider the possible causes for a speech sound disorder, as presented in an article called “Relations Among Speech, Language, and Reading Disorders,” by researchers Bruce Pennington and Dorothy Bishop.
The authors write that causes for a speech sound disorder could include difficulties processing sounds, motor problems with planning and producing the movements necessary for speech, brain issues involving the mapping between motor planning and speech production, difficulties identifying the differences between similar sounding speech patterns, or some combination of any of these causes.
So in summary, not only could a child have language impairment without a reading disorder, a speech sound disorder without language impairment, or any other combination of these three, but it is also difficult to separate out the different causes that would prompt one of the three diagnosis.
And as if all of this complexity wasn't enough, the issue can be further complicated by introducing other developmental or cognitive disorders. In the case of ADHD, the authors explicitly state:
“One can readily imagine that a child might appear to be inattentive or hyperactive in the classroom because of the frustration elicited by difficulties with reading rather than as a consequence of the neurocognitive difficulties that are typically associated with ADHD in the absence of [reading disability].” ~Pennington & Bishop, 299
The Takeaway for You and Your Child
Despite the occasionally overwhelming complexity, any experienced parent knows that children are very resilient. The way in which they constantly grow and improve despite obstacles never ceases to amaze.
A parent's response when faced with facing a situation of a child struggling with some type of language difficulty should not be to run away from the complexity and give up. It can be easy to settle on the quickest and easiest diagnosis and hide behind that label.
And while a close relationship with a trusted, capable speech-language pathologist can certainly go a long way towards getting your child the attention he or she deserves, in the end it is the parents that know best what specific difficulties the child has, and what they can do in response.
No matter the situation, there are always activities and exercises that you can do with your child that will hone in on the specific problems they have.
As with all things in parenting, the more individual attention you can give your child, the more able they will be to overcome individual difficulties and develop into healthy, thriving adults.
In the immortal words of Albert Einstein, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want your children to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
Pennington, B. F., & Bishop, D. V. (2009). Relations Among Speech, Language, and Reading Disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 283-306.
Now that snow is finally here, are you wondering what to do with all the wonderful white stuff? How about making use of our children’s enthusiasm for some fun and educational snow-filled speech and language learning? Read on for free speech-language activities for home, daycare, or school use!
Speech Developement (Young Child)
In this section, here are some simple but effective resources to help your preschooler model the correct production of “s” blends.
Let's look at a preschooler who literally says “no” for “snow”. This is the child exclaiming “no, no” at the first snowfall, when you know they really mean “Look at the snow!” You may not have the training and experience to directly help this child correct their speech, but there is much to be said for modeling – over and over and over! What better time to model “sn” blend words than at the beginning of winter! In fact, since omission of the “n” in the “sn” blend is likely part of the larger speech process of omitting “s” from “s” blends in words (e.g., “no” for “snow”, “ poon” for “spoon”, “ wim” for “swim”, “ top” for “stop”, “ mile” for “smile”), you can have fun bombarding your child with lots of “s” blend words (speech-language pathologists call this “auditory bombardment.”).
Reading books is a great place to start – simply say the “s” blend part of words a little louder and a little longer. For example, “Sadie and the Snowman” (Allen Morgan) is a wonderful little book for this, and it also discusses the concept of “melting.” Of course, go outside and enjoy the real snow while slightly exaggerating the “s” blend in “snow”, “snowball”, “snowman”, “stack” (the snowballs up), “smile”, etc.
One of the challenges in language development is learning how to describe an order of events or how to describe a sequence. Teaching a child to learn how to describe an order of events can be fun for everyone.
Building a snowman is a great activity to develop this sequencing skill. Use words such as “first”, “then”, and “next.” Even dressing to go outside is a sequence, and sometimes quite a time-consuming one at that! First the child puts on their ski pants, then their jacket, mitts, boots, scarf, hood/hat, etc.
You can also use the memory of an event to help a child learn to describe a sequence. When you’re building the snowman, take picture of the events as the progress. Use “feeling” words to describe the fun you have, and later review the pictures, helping the child commit the experience and associated feelings to memory.
For example, “We went sledding. We climbed up the hill. It was a loooong way up. But then we got to slide down. It was so much fun! We were going so fast, it was almost scary! I even fell off once, but I was not hurt. Nobody wanted to stop. We slid down the hill many times! By the time we were done, we were tired and cold, but we had had a great time! Then we went inside and had hot chocolate. That warmed us up quickly!”
Resources For Helping Your Child Learn Language
Sometimes it can be difficult to get ideas on how to engage a child in how to pronouce words properly or even build their vocabulary. Here are some resources to help you along the way.
by Aileen Fisher
I used to think that snow was white.
And then, I saw it blue one night.
And then, I saw it gold one day, with purple shadows and with gray.
And then, one morning it was pink.
So now I don’t know what to think.
All About Me: Verses I Can Read selected by Leland B. Jacobs (Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1971. 32)
Playing in the Snow
I want to play in the snow,
So I put on my boots and hat
[PUT ON BOOTS AND HAT.]
My soft, warm, cuddly coat
[PUT ON COAT.]
Zips up the front like that!
from Marie Hibma Frost’s Preschool Teachers’ How-to Book: Action Rhymes (Chicago: Moody Press, 1973. 14)
Chubby Little Snowman
A chubby little snowman
[arms around your belly]
Had a carrot nose
[point to nose]
Along came a bunny
[fingers pointed like bunny ears…hop, hop]
And what do you supposed?
[fingers still like ears, stop hopping]
That hungry little bunny
[peer to the left]
Looking for his lunch
[peer to the right]
Ate that snowman’s nose with a
[grab carrot nose and hold to mouth]
[munch carrot… jump up with hands high on ‘CRUNCH’!]
(pg. 10 of Winnipeg Public Library’s Rhymes for Babies and Toddlers, CW1058: 2006 10)
See coloring page at http://www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/chubbysnowmanpoem.htm.
By Kimberly Wiebe, M.Sc., RSLP, CCC-SLP
Archer, Cheryl. Snow Watch: Experiments, Activities and Things to Do with Snow. Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd., 1994.
Cole, Joanna. The Magic School Bus to the Rescue: Blizzard. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2002.
Fisher, Aileen. “Snow Color.” All About Me: Verses I Can Read. Ed. Leland B. Jacobs. Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1971. 32.
Frost, Marie Hibma. “Playing in the Snow.” Preschool Teachers’ How-to Book: Action Rhymes. Chicago: Moody Press, 1973. 14.
Morgan, Allen. Sadie and the Snowman. Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd., 1985.
Motuz, Stephannie. “Personal Episodic Knowledge: Memory Management” Getting to Guiding (for Professionals), 24 November 2014, Rehabilitation Centre for Children, Winnipeg, MB. Workshop/Course Presentation.
Prest, Ashley. “Broken Snowfall Record Stands: Environment Canada.” Winnipeg Free Press. N.p., 23 Nov. 2016. Web 24 Nov. 2016.
Winnipeg Public Library. Community Services Department. “A Chubby Little Snowman.” Rhymes for Babies and Toddlers. CW1058: 2006 10. 10.