Does this sound like stuttering?

[sewaneecook]

DS1 (he turned 3 in June) was a late talker, but he's really come a long way the past few months. However, in the last couple weeks, he's been doing almost an echo with some of his words that I'm concerned may be stuttering. For example, he'll say yes-s-s-s and repeat the 's' sound several times at the end. Or truck-k-k-k and repeat the 'k' sound several times at the end. He doesn't do this with every word or even every time he says a particular word, but it's becoming more frequent in his talking. DH and I speak very clearly to him, so I don't think he's imitating us.

Any ideas what this may be?

[ChetMC]

Stuttering

We had our second DD assessed for stuttering when she was younger. Stuttering can be a repetition of sounds, syllables or whole words... so it does sound like your DS has a minor stutter.

That said, it sounds pretty mild. If it isn't bothering him, isn't seriously interfering with his communication and isn't getting worse I wouldn't worry about it. Just be patient with him. Odds are that he'll outgrow it. If it gets worse, starts to interfere with his communication, or starts to bother him you might want to consider having him assessed.

With young children stuttering is typically associated with a stage of rapid development, and so kids just outgrow it when their brain and body sort it all out and sync up again. It was actually really interesting when the SLP assessed our DD. She could actually make DD's stutter worse or better by increasing or decreasing the demands of her environment.

[sewaneecook]

Could having a new baby brother be a trigger for stuttering? Or can stress trigger it? DS had an anaphylactic reaction to tree nuts around the same time this started. The reaction involved an ER visit, lots of needles and shots, and left DS a bit scared.

[Lingmom]

My five year old daughter stutters by repeating the last syllable of a word. It doesn't stop her from being understood and she doesn't notice it herself, so I'm not bothered. I'm confident it'll sort itself out in the next year or two.

[ChetMC]

Originally Posted by sewaneecook

Could having a new baby brother be a trigger for stuttering? Or can stress trigger it? DS had an anaphylactic reaction to tree nuts around the same time this started. The reaction involved an ER visit, lots of needles and shots, and left DS a bit scared.

I suppose it's possible. But stuttering is so common in young children it's more likely a coincidence. For kids his age, I think most stuttering is the result of things developing a little out of sync and speech just being a very demanding task for kids to master.

[LynnS6]

Lots of 3 year olds stutter. It's as if they're mouths can't keep up with their brains (or vice versa) and so they have short-term dysfluencies.

If you notice it getting worse, if getting words out becomes visibly effortful, or it doesn't get better in about 3-4 months, I'd have him assessed. Something like 90% of stuttering is short term and goes away on its own. It's the other 10% that we're worried about. The old wisdom used to be to wait 6+ months, but they've found that the earlier stuttering can be treated, the less likely it will be to develop into a long term problem.