Stammering in Young Children
by Ann Irwin.

I was reluctant to read this book because it touches on a fear which haunts me - I stammer and my children will do likewise and there's not a damn thing that I can do about it.

I remember sitting, or rather lying like that over-worked cliche, a beached whale, in Kings Hospital, a day before my twin boys were born, and catching a well known therapist on the radio stating, with great authority, that stammering was hereditary, particularly in the case of mothers and sons. I stammererd and I was about to have not one son, but two. I was so panic-stricken that I half climbed, half fell, out of bed and stumbled onto the hospital corridor crying for an instant abortion. It took all the nurses on the ward to calm me down and heave me back on the bed where I lay first in a mood of black motionless despair, and then in mounting restless fury. There are countless causes for stammering, not one proven, definitive cause and why pick on the one designed to provoke maximum terror and helplessness and declare it over the radio? But maybe she was right? And if the cause was hereditary, then it is, per se, out of your control. Genes will decide whether you child will suffer as you have done. The choice is yours as to whether you have that child, but not as to whether they stammer.

Mrs Irwin's book gives you back the chance of that choice, that control. It is short (at 126 pages, you can read it al a longish sitting), concise, a model of jargon-free clarity, and designed to allay fears. Mrs Irwin is a therapist of long experience and evident wisdom and good sense, and the therapy she promotes is a preventive one. She mentions possible causes, including the aforementioned bogey one, but does not swell on them. Her concern is not for the factors we cannot control, but for those we can and her message is about tackling a potential problem in an eminently practical way. The power is put back in the hands of the parents - all parent, even stammering ones - who are presented with a workable plan; steps to be taken which have a disarming simplicity, but if carried out with commitment will have far-reaching effects.

Central to these techniques, or the Umbrella, is the removal of pressures both on and surrounding the child, most particularly the removal of the stresses of drawing attention to the child's speech and the ceasing of negative reaction to the stammer. Anxiety about speaking must be removed and all 'helpful' correction, like "stop, slow down, take your time" must stop, in that it is the stammer rather than what is being said, that is getting the response. This produces tension, and awareness in the child that what he is doing when he speaks is 'wrong' and that he must try to get it 'right'. The child must feel that it is okay to stammer; it must be accepted, regarded as normal and not fought and thus fear of speaking, and the erosion of confidence and self-esteem which reinforces the speech problem, is dispelled.

Equally important is the removal of negativity on the part of the listening adult. This is not about ignoring the problem, regarding mention of it as taboo and sweeping it under the carpet, but a thorough acceptance of the presence of the stammer. Look, listen, be interested in what the child is saying, and help rather than correct, if necessary. There is a difference. (Read the book and find out.) It is almost a case of less is more, or when in doubt, don't. Give respect and space to the child. Let them be.

The book manages to be child centred, while putting the parent's view. Always, Mrs Irwin seeks to be practical, to show you ways of coping, to keep alarm and distress at bay and keep the power with you. However, she does emphasise that there are no half measures with preventive therapy. It must be embraced whole-heartedly but then the beauty of it is that it is about letting go, rather than taking on; a shedding of stress and pressures rather than an accumulation and that is of benefit to all, whether you stammer or not.

Reviewed by Caroline Dunant in the Winter 1994 issue of 'Speaking Out'

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