As a teacher of young children, I definitely agree. Boys may be given the message to “use more effort to get through the bumpy speech”, which basically just leads to blocks, fear and avoidances. I think it’s important to let young children know it’s normal/ok to have fear, and then show them ways to handle it. As a side note, as the teacher, I used to panic when having all the children introduce themselves in the group! I didn’t have to say my name but I was remembering when I *did*. Also, last year right before I learned how to speak mostly fluently, I had a 4 yr old who inserted “D” sound in many inappropriate places (articulation disorder). During one of my big blocks, she said to me “Do you dant delp?” (Do you want help?). It was amazing and terrifying to see the difference between our 2 issues.