Stuttering is a valid and acceptable way of talking but can cause a speaker to feel a range of negative emotions. I don’t want a person to feel like they are stuck and not able to say what they want to say when they want to say it. Ben visited Tongue Twisters to get some help as he was worried about stuttering when saying his school speech and he wanted to get his words out more easily.
If you have a stutter and it happens more frequently during a speech and you don’t want it to, perhaps these tips will help you as they did my young friend Ben (age 7years old at the time).
The ‘Jack and Jill speech hill’ Ben mentioned in his comic is from ‘Fluency Packet for Pre-K to Grade 1’ by Badger State Speechy (Donna Miazga) that I bought from Teachers Pay Teachers. In just one session prior to saying his speech to his class, Ben learned to:
- Use a deep breath. Ben used his finger point to climb the hill from the bottom right of the hill to the top of the hill.
- Start speaking gently and slightly slower or starting to breath out before saying his first word. Ben used his finger point to start off slowly at the top of the hill towards the bottom of the hill on the left.
- Speak steadily on one out-going breath. Sometimes focusing on joining words together like saying ‘OnSaturdayIwentforabikeride’ vs little pauses or breaths in between words. Going a little bit slower can help achieve this. Ben used his finger point to move from the top of the hill down to the bottom of the hill on the left.
- Use a natural pause after a chunk of words. A short pause gives you time to think of your next words and leads back to the next deep breath at number 1 again.
There are different therapy strategies for people who stutter at different ages and stages of development. This was helpful for Ben and his stuttering at age 7years old. He has since also learned to use a ‘beat’ timing on syllables to help get words out when he feels stuck. He’s feels less stuck now and feels ok whether he has stuttering moments or if his words come out without bumps and hesitations. Ben is awesome!
Ben’s comic and more letters and pictures from kids about stuttering are here. Feel free to contact me to discuss if you have concerns that your child might be stuttering.