Another difficulty faced by some learners, particularly in the first year of primary school and in the early stages in general, is a speech disorder, namely: stuttering.
This is a condition that carries many problems for the learner, and I observed this in one of my students both inside and outside the classroom.
It was clear that this child was struggling with a severe difficulty in pronunciation, and even in speaking fluently. He was aware of what he wanted to talk about but was unable to express what was on his mind. Sometimes, he would elongate words, at other times he would repeat sound fragments, and on some occasions, he would stop mid-sentence involuntarily. At times, his strong desire to speak would make him burst into tears to hide his suffering.
For an entire term (three consecutive months), I focused my efforts on this student. I intensified his training on reading letters and was patient with him until he could pronounce the most difficult ones, such as the letters "'Ayn" and "Khaa" more correctly. After that, I worked with him on reading some Quranic verses, especially Surah Al-Fatiha and the two Surahs of seeking refuge (Al-Ikhlas and Al-Falaq), until he had mastered them completely. Finally, I resorted to training him to sing some school songs repeatedly. I found that I had moved him from a stage of reading difficulty to a stage of speech difficulty in some segments and paragraphs only.
I wasn't the only one helping him with his speech correction, as his father also regularly took him to sessions with a specialist in phonetics, which greatly helped him, especially in integrating with the group of other students. At first, it was difficult for him to communicate with his peers, but after improving his pronunciation a little, he began to interact with everyone and enjoyed it in a unique way.
I noticed that the learner who suffers from stuttering sometimes uses gestures with his hands or moves his body, particularly his head, to distract the listener's attention. On other occasions, his lips would tremble, his eyelids would rapidly flicker, and sometimes his jaw would make involuntary movements. All of this results in a very limited ability to communicate effectively.
This type of learner is characterized by anxiety without reason and continuously, especially when he finds himself compelled to speak in front of the teacher, which causes his facial muscles to tense up in a way that reflects his desire to speak. In some cases, he might resort to using strange sounds, such as clearing his throat, to distract the listener's attention, while the easiest method for him to escape these overwhelming situations is repeating certain sounds or fragments of words within the words themselves. The difficulty is often limited to the beginning of speech, where the learner struggles with initiating the conversation.
The cases of stuttering in speech vary among learners depending on their emotional mood and mental states, as outlined in educational psychology literature. Some cases worsen due to intense stress, feelings of exhaustion, or pressure from fear of the teacher, such as failing to give an answer or the fear of being punished under any circumstances.
The learner who suffered from stuttering was not born with this difficulty. After investigating his social condition and life circumstances, I found that he had reached this miserable state due to a psychological shock, which resulted from harsh punishment by his mother while he was still young. Close relatives mentioned that when he began learning to speak, he pronounced letters and words quite normally until one day, when he was transformed from a completely normal child into a sad child who spoke with great difficulty, mixed with tears and pain.