We all know that adolescent students undergo various changes as they transition from childhood to adulthood, their communication is no exception! As a result, many adolescent-aged and teen students feel uncomfortable voicing their opinions in class or socialize with their peers. Although teachers and parents usually consider this a harmless awkward phase of growing up, extreme anxiety around communicating may be related to an underlying communication problem. For example, some experience adolescent-aged and teen students experience stuttering, which is when there are fluency disturbances in speech (American Speech Language Hearing Association 2014). 

With out intervention, dysfluency (stuttering or stammering) disorders often continue into adulthood and can significantly affect an individual's self-confidence and self-esteem. Adolescents and teens who stutter while speaking often try to conceal their difficulty by rearranging words in sentences, pretending to forget their thoughts mid-sentence, or by not speaking much at all (American Speech Language Hearing Association 2014). These compensatory behaviors can have negative social and academic consequences. Ideally, adolescent-aged or teenaged students should consult with a speech-language pathologist as soon as the difficulty with fluency arises to minimize the long-term impact social and academic impact. If you are interested in coming in to discuss your fluency, please be aware that our speech therapy services are often covered by extended health insurance. 

If you are interested in making a health claim for speech services, please contact your insurer (Great-West Life, Manulife, Green Shield, etc.) to make sure that you have coverage. Otherwise, contact us to schedule a consultation with a speech-language pathologist to curb your dysfluencies! 

By: Guest Blogger, Pavithiraa Ravindran, Candidate in Speech-Language Pathology