Stuttering occurs when the normal flow of speech is disrupted. Children who stutter may repeat sounds, make unintentional stops mid-word, or may be unable to produce sounds. The social consequences of stuttering include anxiety, withdrawal, and low self-esteem, to name a few. For children like my brother, the more anxious he became the worse his stuttering got. A vicious cycle for any child who develops stuttering.
Children can go from being outgoing individuals to cautious and socially withdrawn.
That's because children, who stutter in one setting, may not stutter in other settings, such as the home, where the child feels more relaxed. In fact, stuttering may be absent when the child is singing, reading aloud, talking in unison, or talking to pets or inanimate objects. The reason for this, according to Wage, is that these interactions employ a different language rhythm. This rhythm of language is one way that speech pathologists help children who stutter. Children are taught to slow down, stretch out or exaggerate their speech to gain greater control over their stuttering.