Author:		Bonnie Hickman-Kamarad
Posted:		4/15/2004; 11:42:08 AM
Topic:		About Fluency
Msg #:		178 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next:		165/179
Reads:		1073

One of the areas that the school-based Speech/Language Pathologist is trained to work in is the area of fluency disorders or, more commonly known as, stuttering.  These disorders typically represent a very small portion of the clinician's caseload.

Parents often become concerned about their child's dysfluencies at about age three and again at age five.  These are two times that changes in the brain and developing language system seem to 'spark' an increase in the child's dysfluency.  It is very common for a youngster at these ages to be heard saying something like, "I-I-I-I want a drink."  Parents may be alarmed that their child is beginning to stutter, but typically this is just a phase that the child is going through and will soon grow out of.

Behaviors that are likely to need professional evaluation are when the child does not 'outgrow' the dysfluency, it becomes worse and the child begins to have 'blocks' when no word comes out or 'prolongations' where the beginning of words is drawn out for a prolonged period of time, or if there is a family history of stuttering.

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