The Emotional Effects Of Stuttering On Children

Many people don’t realize it but stuttering greatly affects the emotional state of a person, especially that of a child. The emotional effects of stuttering on children alone are very much devastating on his or her emotional health. Not only that, stuttering unfavorably affects not just a child's social skills but his or her communication skills as well.

Because of stuttering, many kids think that making friends and building relationships become very disappointing and sometimes traumatizing. Having to live through stuttering at this stage in a person's life is very awkward and painful. Friends also don't come easy for children with stutters according to research kids with a stutter often have to cope up with bullying from peers and classmates.

Studies say that 40 percent of school-aged kids who suffer from stuttering reveal that they been a victim of teasing, bullying, name-calling and worst of all, experienced physical harassment because of their condition. They confess that just because they don't speak too well, other kids simply don’t respect them and don’t listen when they try to say something. The tendency of this inability to express one's self is for stuttering kids to be introverts, always veering away from crowds who might judge and tease them.

Majority of school administrators also agrees that children that stutter are bullied 82 percent of the time inside the classroom, within the school vicinity, and even outside the school premises. This is because many kids without speech problems try to make fun of them especially when there's no adult nearby.

Kids get their self-confidence and esteem from the people around them, people like their families, authority figures or people outside their family unit that they look up to and of course their localized peer group. As children become more mature, the influence that their friends have on them steadily increases and the need to be part of a bigger stratum in society becomes more prevalent.

Children suffering from stuttering are often set aside and picked last or not picked at all to join any of the related activities of a certain group. This makes them feel that they are unwanted, resulting to low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, mood swings, lack of initiative, depression attacks, and a weak personality in the long run.

What can be done?

Parents and teachers can greatly help a lot to lessen the emotional effects on shuttering on children. This is because they can directly affect how the child with stuttering problems think and socialize with others.

For parents, they should always give their full support to their kids that suffer from stuttering no matter what. They should be able to explain to their kids what is their condition, its causes, how it happens, and what could be done about it to make kids feel that they are not alone in dealing with the problem. Parents must always provide their kids an environment that where they can feel safe, loved, and nurtured for them to overcome the condition at their own pace.

Teachers can also play a big role in helping minimize the effects of stuttering on kids. This is by extending a helping hand and more patience to child in the school setting. Teachers must realize that kids who stutter tend to lose self esteem quickly so they must do something to make the child understand that he or she is not inferior compared to other classmates.