Stuttering And Your Child - a video for parents
by the Stuttering Foundation of America

Deborah Plummer: "The video is 30 minutes long and is divided into three sections. There is a description of stuttering and a comparison with normal nonfluency. This difference is illustrated with a selection of scenes of young children speaking to their parents. There is then a section covering some common questions which parents ask. Finally, four main ways of helping children to regain more natural fluency are outlined. These involve alteration of adult speech patterns by:

• pausing for one second before speaking.
• talking more slowly.
• using shorter, simpler sentences.
• talking about what the child is talking about.

The video is aimed primarily at parents who are concerned that their child might be stuttering but haven't yet been assessed. There are several well known American speech language pathologists who give short comments about the nature and treatment of stuttering. Sections of the video are useful for demonstration purposes but on the whold there is very little that it offers in comparison to the 'Time to Talk' video produced by the Michael Palin Centre (also available from our library - Webmaster). I liked the fact that parents gave their comments about the changes they had been asked to make but I found the video generally to be uncomfortably long and repetitive."

Alison Bridle: "As a parent of a child that has stammered for two years I found the video was well narrated, clear and easily understandable. For parents that are new to stammering I am sure that it will allay their fears as we all initially feel guilty that we are to blame for our child's dysfluency. We should not expect our child and speech therapist to do all the work. We too should be willing to learn and therefore help our child. This video points out positive points to that end."

Reviewed in 'Helping Stammering Pupils Supplement No.10', in the Autumn 1994 issue of Speaking Out, by Deborah Plummer, specialist speech and language therapist, and Alison Bridle, parent.

back to library entry to list of reviewse