See the Logical Levels section for more information. An ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure. This could be overt, such as the child who aborts an attempt at speaking due to frustration. Or covert, such as spelling words when they fear stuttering. Avoidance is advanced awareness and requires immediate intervention.
Avoidance crops up with a belief that stuttering is bad and to be avoided.
Family-centered early intervention can be very effective in helping you and your child. See the Logical Levels of Stuttering page on this site for a better understanding of the systematic development of stuttering. In early intervention, we desire to keep the disfluency as an environment and behavior issue only.