Woman who has a stammer offers advice for parents of toddlers who stammer
"It's okay to stammer."
For all its flaws, one of the wonderful things about the internet is that it allows for people to find or build a community when they're underrepresented in traditional forms of media.
Social media has thereby become a powerful tool for disabled people and people who have a variety of conditions to represent, educate, offer advice, and overall share their stories on their own terms.
One person making good use of such a platform is 23-year-old Georgia Scott, known on TikTok as @ge0rgiatalks.
Georgia, who has over 108,000 followers on the video-sharing app, post videos of herself navigating day-to-day life in a fluent world as a person who has a stammer.
Through sharing her experiences, the 23-year-old's account has become not just a great space for others to feel represented, but a resource for those of us who don't have a stammer to learn how we can better support those who do – as exhibited by her Q&A.
One TikTok user commented that her three-year-old daughter has a stammer and asked Georgia for tips.
"Aside from the more obvious ones like good eye contact, patience, giving her enough time to speak, I think it's also so important to reward any speaking that she does," she said.
"And not just reward fluency, because when you reward someone when they've said something fluent, it gives them an unrealistic standard to then live up to.
"So if you can just reward someone for any speaking that she does and give her lots of praise and encouragement... I think the most important thing is that she doesn't avoid and that she is speaking."
Georgia added that it becomes a problem when kids develop avoidance mechanisms, such as avoiding words, sounds or situations where they have to speak.
"Because she's so young, I think the only thing that you can really focus on is patience, lots of praise, lots of encouragement, and just telling her that it's okay," she continued. "It's okay to stammer."
@ge0rgiatalksAnswer to @katelinds93 ##stammer ##stammering ##stutter ##stuttering♬ original sound - ge0rgiatalks
Her message that it's okay to stammer is clearly having a positive impact on those who do.
Another mother commented that she showed her 6-year-old, who has a speech impediment, a video where Georgia ordered her food at a drive through. "He says he is going to order his own McDonalds next time," the mam wrote.
"This right here is why I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing," Georgie responded.
