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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffThere's no specific cure for stuttering. Although some medications have been tried for stuttering, no drugs have yet proved to help the problem. Most children outgrow stuttering on their own, and no stuttering treatment is needed. If your child's stuttering lasts longer than six months or beyond age 5, speech therapy may be useful to help decrease stuttering.
Parental involvement
A common treatment method, often effective for early stuttering in preschoolers, includes the parents and involves slowing the speech and praising the child for speaking fluently.
Controlled fluency
This type of speech therapy not only requires the child to slow down his or her speech, but also teaches him or her to self-monitor for stuttering. Although children usually speak very slowly and deliberately when they begin this type of speech therapy, over time, they'll work up to a more natural speech rate with the help of a speech therapist.
Electronic devices
Several types of electronic devices are available to help people who stutter. One is called delayed auditory feedback, and this method requires your child to slow his or her speech or the speech will sound distorted through the machine. Another device mimics your child's speech so that it sounds as if he or she is talking in unison with someone else.
- Ropper AH, et al. Normal development and deviations in development of the nervous system. In: Ropper AH, et al. Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology. 9th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3634622. Accessed July 12, 2009.
- Prasse JE, et al. Stuttering: An overview. American Family Physician. 2009;77:1271.
- Stuttering. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/stutter.htm. Accessed July 11, 2009.
- Stuttering. American Speech-Language Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/stuttering.htm. Accessed July 11, 2009.
- 7 tips for talking with your child. The Stuttering Foundation. http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=632. Accessed July 12, 2009.
