Speech Therapy 1: August

Assalamua'laikum
I would like to share with all of you the take-home advice from my son's first appointment with the speech therapist from the ENT Department today (GH Melaka). 

A little intro: 
My son M, is 7 years old and sometimes has a bit of a stuttering problem. He is a normal, talkative 7 year old. He can read and write, and my son is being home-schooled (out of choice). The therapist commented that M's mental/cognitive age is over 7 years old. 

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Ways to encourage a child from stop stuttering:

1. Don't 'cut off' a child when he/she is speaking to you. This might kill of his train of thought and lead to miscellaneous negative speech-problems. 

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2. When all of your children speak to you all at the same time:

2.1 Taking Turns

Demonstrate to each one (yes, including the small ones, like the 4 year olds) how does it feel like when more than one person is talking to you all at the same time. Therefore, they will soon learn to be patient and take turns to speak to you. NO, this will NOT happen instantly after the FIRST demo, and YES, you will have to remind them GENTLY, A LOT of times. 

2.1.2 The therapist reminded me about reminding the kids frequently that they need to take turns. She told me, "Remind them nicely. Be firm but gentle. When you are consistently patient, firm, and gentle, you will see results."

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2.2 Adab

She also reminded me to patiently and firmly and gently teach speech adab to my children. It will take time, patience, firmness, and gentleness, but the result is priceless. Orang dewasa/ orang tua jadi contoh self-restraint, orang kecil /kanak-kanak akan ikut, inshaAllah.

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2.3 Example of patience and self-restraint/self-control

Adults must demonstrate self-restraint when the smaller child is throwing a tantrum (i.e screaming) due to her developmental/ cognitive inability to accept that her older brother deserves a turn at speaking (to the parent/adult/etc) just as much as she does. Don't hit her, don't scold her, don't punish her. What to do? IGNORE her, THEN offer soothing emotional support when she has calmed down (and so have you). Please don't BRIBE her into being quiet.

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3. STOP NAME-CALLING AND LABELLING (Panggilan negatif)

(Abu Musa Muhammad Saufy Rohmad this is a very significant part):

3.1 Do NOT label the child "memang gagap" and other labels like "kurus macam cicak kobeng".

Translation: Doktor TIDAK BENARKAN orang tua meletakkan "Label negatif" pada anak-anak, termasuk panggilan seperti : 

"Kamu memang gagap kerana ayah kamu gagap" atau "Kamu kurus macam cicak kobeng kerana mak kamu memang kurus". 

Di minta agar sangat sensitif atas hal ini kerana anak saya M telah memaklumkan doktor atas isu "panggilan cicak kobeng" atas dirinya sewaktu saya tiada dalam bilik doktor. (M beritahu sendiri pada doktor ketika hanya M dan doktor berbual berdua).

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4. Remind the (talkative but stuttering) child to:

4.1 stop (because he/she is stuttering)
4.2 take a breath, 
4.3 be calm before trying to speak again. 

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5. Encourage **literate children to read aloud

Reading aloud helps a person to regulate their breathing pattern when speaking. Observe the child when he/she is reading aloud (and see if he/she manages to fit 7 words in a single breath). 

Encourage the child to read aloud by showing interest in their 'session' or 'story'. 

Offer generous verbal and bodily cues that YOU ARE listening to them, i.e :

-sit close beside them, 
-have your arm around them, 
-look at the book they are reading, 
-say "What happens next?", "Wow, did that really happen?", "What an amazing story!", etc, 
-allocate a special time for this DAILY, etc. 

(OBVIOUSLY this means your eyes and hands are not fixed onto a smartphone or TV Screen while this is happening)

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Sekian,
Amirah Mokhtar.

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Glosari:

**Literate: Those who can read and write