In 2021, Nora, a ten-year-old girl, was referred to the Speech Therapy clinic at JHAH for speech assessment. Her parents shared that Nora finds difficulty speaking, takes a long time to produce one word, and prefers to be silent most of the time. Before being referred to the Speech Therapy clinic at JHAH, Nora had seen a clinician at another hospital for almost two years with no improvement. She refused to go to her weekly speech therapy sessions. She was diagnosed with selective mutism by a physician who did not specialize in Speech and Language disorders.
On her first visit to the JHAH Speech Therapy clinic, she was assessed by Nasser Alqahtani, a JHAH Speech Therapist. After a deep case history analysis and a comprehensive assessment, he identified that Nora does not have selective mutism but profound silent blocks. Nasser began treatment by first educating Nora and her parents about stuttering.
After her first session, Nora felt a noticeable difference in her speech and expressed interest in continuing her therapy. After just 12 weekly sessions, Nora spoke with three words per sentence without noticeable stuttering.
If your child is six years old or below, keep your child unaware of their stuttering by:
Be a good example for your child with your slow, relaxed speech, which will be far more effective than any criticism or advice such as "slow down" or "try it again slowly.