ISA Parents' Support Network

The next meeting of the The ISA Parents' Support Network will take place at 8 p.m. Tuesday 8th June, Belvedere Hotel, Great Denmark St. Dublin 1. View Map

Research shows that approximately 5% of all Irish children will stammer during their childhood for a period of 6 months or more. The vast majority of these children will recover, not displaying any signs of dysfluency. That will leave around 1% of Irish children with long term stammering developing into teenage years and adulthood.

In many cases, when a child begins stammer, the child's parents have little knowledge or understanding of what stammering is, or what it will mean to the child. Parents can feel huge responsibility to their child and often are at a loss to know what to do about the difficulty their children face and may not know where to seek help or advice. Apart from the practical aspects of wanting to help their children when stammering occurs, parents may feel a number of emotions when faced with the unknown. If a parent also stammers it can be a very emotional experience when their child begins stammering, more so if their feelings toward their own stammering have not been addressed.

The main purpose of this project is to provide a source of support and information to parents of children who stammer, through being able to meet and talk to other parents like themselves. The intention is that the support network will help to reduce the isolation felt by some parents and to also help to provide a link between parents and Speech and Language Therapists. Through providing a source of support to families, it will also support children who stammer. Parents will lead the network, once launched. It is not, however, intended as a substitute for Speech and Language Therapy, but is an addition to the supports available to parents.

The main element of this project is to set up a network of parents who will share knowledge, experiences and give support to each other. Parents may be at different stages of the process of dealing with their child's stammering, but all can share their experiences and knowledge to the benefit of each other. In addition, it will provide a source of information to families about stammering in children through a dedicated page on the ISA website, and through access to books, DVD's and articles that may be of interest. ISA will run establish other groups around the country in the coming year.

This project was made possible by funding from the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and we are grateful to them for their generous support. Postgraduate Speech and Language Therapy Students from the University of Limerick will be assisting the ISA in evaluating the effectiveness of the Parent's Support Network through carrying out a survey among parents. The results of this survey will help us to further develop this and other services to people who stammer.

For more information please contact the ISA by mail or phone