DOs and DON’Ts for Stuttering Advocacy

In honor of International Stuttering (Stammering) Awareness Day (October 22nd), I am sharing a post I made on Instagram with some easy dos and don’ts for supporting people who stutter.

One of my favorite people in this entire world stutters 👦🏻🧡 and so do several of my amazing students!

Just yesterday, I had a conference with a parent asking her for permission to evaluate her child who stutters. She had noticed it for many years, but didn’t know what to do about it. (BTW: My recommendation is to always talk to a licensed SLP! Even if your child is young. There are certain risk factors for continued stuttering and there are many things SLPs can do to help!)

This parent was excited for me to work with her son, and she wanted to know how she could help him. I think these things should be taught to everyone so that we can all be better supporters and advocates of all of the incredible people around the world that stutter❣️

Don’t:
🛑 Interrupt
🛑 Try to talk for them or finish their sentence
🛑 Complain about how long it’s taking
🛑 Make fun of them (or any related behaviors like excessive eye blinking) in any way
🛑 Tell them to “just spit it out” or “hurry up”
🛑 Tell jokes that refer to / use stuttering in them
🛑 Judge someone’s intelligence or capabilities based on the smoothness of their speech

DO
✅ Understand that there is nothing wrong with stuttering. It doesn’t make someone “less” in any way
✅ Wait patiently for the person to finish speaking
✅ Be a no judgement safe-space where the speaker can feel relaxed and not rushed
✅ Advocate for people who stutter whenever you witness discrimination or anything negative about stuttering
✅ Treat people who stutter just like you would treat anyone else – with kindness and respect

I’ll put some links below that you can use to learn more about stuttering. But as with anything – it’s best to talk to and learn from people who actually experience it personally!

Happy International Stuttering (or Stammering) Day!