Workshop on stuttering on December 3

Accretio Groepspraktijk for logopedie on December 3 will organize a workshop on stuttering in association with Stichting Weid Mijn Lammeren. Several videos and case studies will be presented that day. Stuttering is a well-known phenomenon in Suriname. Everybody has heard somebody stuttering at least once. But reports indicate that people often do not know exactly what stuttering is and how to handle it. People often recognize stuttering when other repeat words or parts of words, lengthen sounds or get stuck while pronouncing a sound. Stuttering or stammering occurs all over the world and among all ethnic groups and cultures. A report from Yairi and Ambrose indicates that about 5% of children could go through a period of disfluent speech behavior. (Early Childhood Stuttering: For Clinicians, 2005). Age is among the strongest risk factors for stuttering with several important implications. Although the disorder begins within a wide age-range, current robust evidence indicates that, for a very large proportion of cases, it erupts during the preschool period. Data obtained at the University of Illinois Stuttering Research Program revealed that for 65% of the child participants, stuttering onset occurred prior to age 3; the figure rose to 85% by 3 1/2 years of age (Yairi & Ambrose, 2005). Leaving room for some sampling errors, children past age 4 face a relatively low risk for stuttering. From clinical considerations, these statistics call for greater emphasis on preparing clinicians for working with early childhood stuttering. The organizations hope that many educators and kindergarten teachers will attend the workshop because early detection is critical. Children currently receive free healthcare and speech therapy is also part of the free medical package.