[Stuttering in children as a problem of phoniatric outpatient clinics].

Stuttering in young children is an extremely complex phenomenon. On all levels of intervention such as evaluation, differential diagnosis between stuttering and normal disfluency, diagnostic guidance of therapy process or direct and indirect treatment a number of questions arise for which answers have not been yet found. But realizing that the disorder is most difficulty to cure in adults and adolescents prevention or early treatment is essential. So diagnosticians and therapists need a high level of knowledge about the onset, the maintenance and the development of the disorder in every individual case of stuttering in young children. Decisions concerning the indications for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions must not be made by intuition but by professionally balancing the influencing factors such as psycho-social variables or marked deficits in mental, motor or sensory areas of the child's development. We want to demonstrate the different dimensions of the diagnostic and therapeutic process and the amount of professional time and effort which is necessary for the handling the stuttering child and his family.