It was like a dream to make normal conversations with my two-year-old. Perfect diction. An amazing vocabulary. Beautiful sense of sentence formation. But little did I know that this dream would turn into one of my worst nightmares. That my son who speaks beautifully, pronounces with care, articulates his words and sentences smoothly, would one morning start to stutter?

I went through a hellish phase that makes my hair stand on end as I sit and recount it. It was difficult to see when my child would start to stutter from word to word and then progress from the start of a sentence to the middle and the end. At first I thought he was trying to sound phonetically correct ( K Ka Ka kangaroo, A Ay Ay apple, B Ba Ba ball) for they had been teaching phonetics at school for a while. However, when it cascaded to complete sentences, all levels of patience were tested. I could not bear to see my child stutter and in utter frustration I would either complete words and sentences for him or ask him to stop stuttering and talk slowly, making him aware that he’s not supposed totalk like that.

But things got worse. He stuttered all the more. And it was time to be patient.

Yes, it worked. Here are a few ways that helped me help my son get over his stuttering. Though he still stutters at times, I know he is just trying hard to sound correct.

1. Do not get worked up. It only makes matters worse. They get stressed because they feel that something is wrong and upsetting their mother is their biggest fear.

2. Once your child finishes talking, say something positive. Like,“Yes, that’s right!” and repeat the same thing rather slowly. It helps to boost their self-confidence that seems to be lacking during this phase.

3. Do not talk on their behalf. If you finish what they have to say,they will never make the effort to improve.

4. Do not imitate. It will give them an impression that it’s OK to stutter.

5. Make your friends and relatives aware of this condition.I wasn’t surprised when acquaintances started to imitate and reply in a stuttering manner just because they thought it was fun for the child.

6. Read slowly to them, pausing between sentences and pages.This will make them understand that they can take their time to think and say what they want to communicate.

Bring it to the teachers’ notice and ask them to observe if your child is behaving similarly at school too. The fact is, between the age of two years and four, children are going through a language spurt. Their ability to talk cannot cope with the speed at which they think and hence the pauses and awful stuttering. The good news is that this is not abnormal with kids this age and this kind of stuttering generally lasts for not more than a few weeks. But if it persists beyond that, or if the stuttering gets worse as they get older, do consult your pediatrician or a speech therapist.

To see your child stutter is a nightmare indeed but as with every other challenge, for this one too, all you need is oodles of patience.

Vaishali Shroff is a freelance writer and editor and runs a reading club (www.eikthirani.wordpress.com) for children in Pune. Her work has been published in over 10 titles of the Chicken Soup India Series, her children’s stories can be read at smories (http://www.smories.com/author/vaishali-shroff/) and she can’t wait for her first children’s book to be out.