A Member of the University of Maryland Medical System | In Partnership with the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Get answers to your child's growth, nutrition, and feeding behavior questions.
Growth and Nutrition Experts’s Bio | Q&A Archive
Children and stuttering; Speech disfluency; Stammering
There is no one best treatment for stuttering. Most early cases are short-term and resolve on their own.
Speech therapy may be helpful if:
Speech therapy can help make the speech more fluent or smooth, and can help the child feel better about the stuttering.
Parents are encouraged to:
Drug therapy has NOT been shown to be helpful for stuttering.
It is not clear whether electronic devices help with stuttering.
Self-help groups are often helpful for both the child and family.
In most children who stutter, the phase passes and speech returns to normal within 3 or 4 years. Stuttering that begins after a child is 8 - 10 years old is more likely to last into adulthood.
Possible complications of stuttering include social problems caused by the fear of ridicule, which may make a child avoid speaking entirely.
Call your provider if:
Prasse JE, Kikano GE. Stuttering: an overview. Am Fam Physician. 2008;77(9):1271-1276.
Stuttering. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. NIDCD. NIH Pub. No. 10-4232. Updated March 2010. Reviewed OCtober 2008.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics and subscribes to the principles of the Health on the Net Foundation (www.hon.ch).
© 2011 University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). All rights reserved.
UMMC is a member of the University of Maryland Medical System,
22 S. Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. TDD: 1-800-735-2258 or 1.866.408.6885