Supporting Students Who Stutter
Students
What is stuttering?
- Many people describe it as a physical and emotional struggle characterized by “unexpected interruptions to the forward movement of speech”.
- It can be accompanied by negative thoughts, feelings and discomfort about listener reactions.
- It is not a sign of emotional disturbance or low intelligence, nor is it due to shyness, nervousness, lack of self-confidence, or not knowing what to say.
- It does not have a quick, simple solution or cure.
- We want all students who stutter to know there are other students who stutter and together we can change how stuttering is perceived for the better!
https://stutter.ca/
Topic: When speaking with a person who stutters
Topic: Peer Support
Topic: Bullying Prevention
While it may be difficult for the child to solve the problem of bullying, it can also be empowering to learn helpful strategies to deal with the situation. While all the suggested strategies may not be applicable, you can help the child to identify what works best for them and thus create a safe environment:
- Talk to the bully assertively yet calmly to stop. You can also role play assertive statements such as “I do not like to be treated this way. Please stop”.
- Enlist help of an adult. Make the child understand that it is perfectly alright to seek help from an adult when facing a bully, since an adult knows how to intervene.
- Enlist help of a peer: It is always good to have support of a responsible adult that will be able to confront the bully.
- Acknowledge and move on! The best technique is to take the power out of the bully’s hand by agreeing with them. For example, “Okay, you are right, I stutter!
- Do not give any emotional responses: Although it is difficult, by showing the bullies how much their words or actions hurt, it will motivate them to bully more. Similarly, by retaliating with taunts or violence the situation will only escalate.”
