Penguin

Supporting families of children who stammer/stutter

When a child starts stammering, it can be hard to know how to help.

Penguin aims to help parents and carers learn how to support their child during the early stages of stammering.

We have 4 key aims:

- Help children who stammer to develop into confident communicators

- Give parents confidence to support their child and themselves

- Develop helpful communication habits

- Adapt to each family

Penguin gives instant help with a 10-day course. Each bitesize lesson (less than 5 minutes a day), looks at a specific aspect of stammering and gives a mix of information and activities to use in everyday situations. It is designed to be flexible and highlights way that parents can support their child within their own unique family situation.

It is not a replacement for speech therapy but empowers parents to identify things they can do whilst also offering guidance on how to seek further professional help should it be needed.

The app was made by a UK based company, Respira, which includes people who stammer; speech and language therapists; researchers and engineers. Respira was founded by Jordi Fernandez, a person who stutters. The company aims to improve support for the stuttering community through technology.

When developing Penguin, we spoke to different groups of people who we think may find the app useful. This included speech and language therapists, parents of children who stammer, and the charities STAMMA and Action for Stammering Children.

Our mission is to support you and keep talking fun for your little one.