It’s no secret that stuttering can have a negative impact on a child’s self-esteem, and prevent them from engaging in social activities. Many children show symptoms of fluency disorders in the early stages of speech development.
It’s most common among children between the ages of two and five, when their language skills haven’t developed to the level where they can articulate what they are trying to say. However, if the child is older or has been stuttering for longer than six months, they might benefit from some helpful speech exercises.
We supply a wide range of speech fluency toys and games to help reduce stuttering. Whether your child prefers playing with board games, card decks, Thumballs or flip books; our selection offers a variety of fun and engaging resources that aim to help kids who stutter.
Our therapy resources can help to alleviate common stuttering and stammering symptoms, such as
- The repetition of sounds, syllables, or words (for instance, if a child says W-W-W-Where)
- The prolonging of sounds, i.e. FFFFFFFFloor
- Frequent use of “um”, “like” and other interjections (for example, “Let’s go – um – to the… like – um…”
- Slow or stunted speech with frequent pauses
- Blocked speech (when the child is opening their mouth to speak but no words are coming out)
- Becoming nervous, out of breath or having trembling lips while speaking
- Being afraid to speak to people
As an example, our Fluency River Board Game is purposefully designed by industry experts to help students gain an insight into what stuttering is, and to help them build confidence through various fluency techniques that continually improve their speech over time.
At Fun Stuff, we also carry an endless collection of toys and games for helping with articulation and phonology, oral motor skills, vocabulary, grammar/syntax and more. Stuttering is often accompanied by other speech or language disorders, so these resources may also help.
Tried-and-tested stuttering resources for children
Whether you are a parent/caregiver, teacher, speech pathologist or psychologist, remember these tips when using our toys for children with fluency disorders:
- Create a relaxed environment for the child
- Praise them when they deliver correct speech
- Don’t interrupt them while they are speaking
- Talk slowly and clearly to the child
- Be patient and let the child finish the sentence on their own
Our collection of toys and games are suitable for the classroom, at home or in a one-on-one therapy environment. The Fun Stuff team goes above and beyond to source the latest and greatest educational and therapeutic resources for helping children with their development.
Contact us for further information
Need assistance? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch – call 1300 FUN STUFF or submit an online enquiry and we’ll be happy to help.
