How is stuttering treated?
There are a variety of treatments available for stuttering. Any of the methods may improve stuttering to some degree, but there is at present no cure for stuttering. Stuttering therapy, however, may help prevent developmental stuttering from becoming a life-long problem. Therefore a speech evaluation is recommended for children who stutter for longer than six months or for those whose stuttering is accompanied by struggle behaviors. Developmental stuttering is often treated by educating parents about restructuring the child’s speaking environment to reduce the episodes of stuttering. Parents are often urged to: • provide a relaxed home environment that provides ample opportunities for the child to speak. Setting aside specific times when the child and parent can speak free of distractions is often helpful. • refrain from criticizing the child’s speech or reacting negatively to the child’s disfluencies. Parents should avoid punishing the child for any disfluencies or asking the child re
