**I cannot recommend persevering with speech therapy enough.** It's well known these days that the sooner speech therapy is started, the more effective it is and the higher chance there is that the individual will be able to speak fluently into teen and adulthood. Living with **a stutter is a disability**. It's invisibilized compared to other disabilities because it's not seen and can be masked by the stutterer to some extent (i.e. by not talking), but like most disabilities, it has the potential to have a huge impact on the person's life and personal development. It's very common for people who stutter to struggle with socialisation at school, becoming employed, progressing in their career, and it's common for them to develop things like anxiety and depression. **As a 23 y/o with a stutter myself, I am emphasising these facts because I've had the experience of having parents who don't fully understand the reality of what a stutter is** and how important it is to at least try speech therapy at a young age. This is even though my dad stutters and my mum had a brother who went to therapy and managed to overcome a stutter. From this, you can glean how the awareness of stammering in modern society is terribly low. I really recommend that, as a parent, you: * **Read about how stuttering works** \- there are different types of stutters, like 'cognitive stuttering' for example, and they impact people differently. * **Read up on the different benefits of speech therapy for stuttering.** * **And finally, read up on the experiences of people who stutter** \- on this subreddit for example - to give you a bit of insight into the struggles and perspectives of people living with a stutter long-term. I also strongly agree with what others have said about supporting your son emotionally, and not ridiculing or villainizing the stutter. Focus on not making the stutter a 'bad thing' about them. Admittedly, this is a bit self-contradictory when actively trying to improve or 'fix' their stutter by taking them to speech therapy, but it's important to **encourage the belief in them that it's okay to stutter** above anything else, so that they don't internalise feelings of inferiority because of their stutter that might disadvantage them as they get older. There are plenty of people who have speech therapy and don't continue to stutter into adulthood. But, more than that, taking your son to speech therapy would be hugely beneficial just in the sense that if he still has his stammer when he's older (despite going to therapy), he won't be as filled with regret or resentment towards you (or himself) - if he's struggling with it - that you/you both didn't try with speech therapy when it would have been more effective - in other words, when he was still very young. I hope this helps. I am providing you with this advice from the perspective of someone who has had a stutter since they were a child, who still struggles with it at 23 y/o, and who wishes their parents had taken them to speech therapy when they were younger. I wish you and your son all the best with this stage of his development in life 😊