Stuttering

As many of you know, Collin had a problem with stuttering. He actually was stuttering for a few months when we were in Hawaii, but it went away. Then he started it again when he went into Kindergarten this year. It was a pretty noticeable problem, but we really didn't know what to do. We tried to ignore it for a while, hoping it would go away like it had before. That wasn't working. Sometimes stuttering can be related to stress so we were trying to find out if something was bothering him at home or at school. That is kind of a funny conversation to have with a 5 year old, and we really got nowhere. He seemed to be a happy, smart kid. Darrell decided to take kind of an aggressive approach and make Collin stop what he was saying and start over if he started to stutter. Let's just say that wasn't effective. Even the teacher at school had him see the speech therapist. They said, although he does stutter frequently, it really wasn't considered stuttering, because he didn't have any of the ticks that go with it. As the year went on, and so did the stuttering, I just really was at a loss as to how I could help my child get over this. Was he going to have this his whole life? Finally through all my reading, I found an article that said something that was pretty profound to me. It suggested letting your child finish their sentence no matter how long it took them. Just listen. I had been interrupting him and finishing his sentences, because it took so long to spit out what he was going to say. I tend to rush people, and I had to stop. Let's just say after days and weeks of me being more patient and just letting him finish what he had to say, we are stutter-free!
It's funny how all this time I was thinking that he had a problem that he needed to fix, but really it was me who needed to change. Isn't it funny how we do that a lot in our lives? We think something or someone is doing something wrong and it irritates us, but really, if we just change and improve one small thing then the problem disappears. The answer is to just be more patient and the problems will take care of themselves.
I had an argument this week with a friend that could have been solved by being more patient on my end. I could have listened more and talked less. When things like that happen in my life I like to look at myself and find out how I can improve. What did I do wrong? What can I do differently? I am setting some New School Year's Resolutions (who says you only can do this in January?) to try to improve myself and my family. I can't wait to get back onto a regular schedule when school starts. I think that always helps us to keep on track.
Here are a few of my resolutions:
1. First of all, the obvious one: patience. For some reason lately I have been irritable, and I just need to let things go.
2. Make more of an effort with family. I don't keep in touch with my family or Darrell's family as much as I should. Marsha, you are my hero for knowing how to talk to family and keep people connected.
3. Family Home Evening every week. This sometimes get skipped, because Darrell leaves on Monday nights. We need to plan this for a different day of the week to make sure it always gets done.
4. Scripture reading daily. This is something I do really, really well at for a while and then it falls off again. I need to schedule this into my day and make it a priority.
5. House cleaning. I hate it! But my new plan that has worked so far is to put the kids to bed at 7:30pm and then clean until 8pm. That way the kids are out of the way and it is way easier to get things done.
6. Eat more healthy. I have been having a rough battle with food lately. I am just making easy food, but I need to make sure my diet is more balanced.

There are a few more as well that I want to keep private, but I challenge everyone to make some New School Years Resolutions of your own. I think this is a better time of year to make changes than in January. What are your goals?