Stuttering

[SaoirseC]

My almost 4 yo daughter is stuttering. It seems to happen only when she's excited or anxious, and she hasn't said anything about it bothering her yet. She won't be going to preschool, and I don't know if she stutters around her friends (or if they've mentioned anything about it). Essentially, at this point, it's not bothering her.

I dealt with moderate social anxiety as a teen, and a slight speech impediment when I was 8 (i couldn't pronounce "s" correctly). So I think I know how this *could* turn out if we're not careful.

I haven't mentioned anything to her about it, either has DH, and I don't think we will because I'd rather not draw attention to the fact that she's stuttering (thus making it an issue). Has anyone dealt with stuttering? I know this is somewhat normal for kids her age, and I'm not freaking out or anything. I'm just wondering if anyone has wise words of advice because they've BTDT and know what helps.

[GoBecGo]

My 4yo does it too, also only when she's excited/upset. It could be entirely wrong (i have no idea) but what i do is listen attentively but not too intensely, and wait it out. I think it's pretty normal for this age group and so long as it's not being unable to say anything at all, or dragging out a sound (like Shhhhhhhhhhhhhoes) it's ok. I don't draw her attention to it or prompt or correct or finish for her or do anything really. I try to make sure *I* speak slowly to her, and give the impression that we have all the time in the world to get what she has to say out, so she needn't rush at it. Possibly a speech therapist will come on soon and tell me i'm wrong though!

[DaughterOfKali]

Even though you won't be sending her to preschool, you can call your public school district and see if they can do an assessment on her. If she qualifies, she would get free speech therapy by the school (yep, even if she doesn't attend school.)

I did this for my son.

[SaoirseC]

Thanks ladies. I'll keep this in mind. Any clue at what age it should be corrected by? I'd rather waitit out if I can, but I don't want it to develop into a problem by waiting too long.

[hippie_mommy]

Stuttering is really normal at this age, especially if your family tends to speak quickly and/or if your child tends to think faster than they can speak.

Our pediatrician said not to worry at all. She suggested speaking slowly, showing the child that they don't need to rush (through eye contact, nodding, giving full attention, etc.), and not pointing it out at all. My daughter outgrew it and it hasn't been an issue for a few years now.

Definitely give your care provider a call if you have concerns, but it is not uncommon at all.

[LynnS6]

Stuttering is a common phase, especially when kids are making a leap in language development.

I'd ask for an evaluation by a Speech Language Pathologist if:

• She increases the amount of stuttering (so it begins to happen in a lot of sentences, and not just when she's excited)
• It goes on for more than 2 months with no reduction in frequency
• She begins to draw out the initial sound of a words. So, if she says "It's a really big be..be...be...bear" it's less worrisome than if she says "It's a really big bbbbbbbbbbear."
• If it begins to bother her.

The common wisdom used to be to wait until a child had been stuttering for 6 months to a year before intervening. Recent research suggests that intervening earlier can keep it from becoming so established. Your evaluation can take place through the schools or if you have private insurance, your doctor can refer you.

[JunipersMom]

My 5 year old is a stutterer.. doesnt bother her at all. The stuttering foundation has a website with good suggestions for families and school in dealing with stuttering at this age. If your babe stays a stutterer - its just going to take some work on their part to learn how to speak with it. There's not a whole lot you can do ... so we embrace it.

[Three~Little~Birds]

I am not sure if your DD watches TV or not, but apparantly eliminating TV/videogames can improve stuttering.

[deditus]

My dd just started doing this, and literally a few seconds ago I was listening to her stutter and remembering that last summer our landlord's son did the same exact thing when he was her age. I think it is commonly a developmental stage when their thoughts are moving faster than they can express.

[AllisonR]

Agree with the others, typical at that age, and when their brain is going faster than their vocabulary. My DS did a bit of stuttering at around 3.5 yo. I'd say when he could not remember the word or phrase he wanted. It lasted a good 6 months or more. Now he is 5.5 and occasionally he still can not remember the words for something, but now instead of stuttering he just waits until he has the words, then speaks again.

Example: It progressed from "when I went outside, the be-be-be, be... - bear was hiding" to "When I went outsie, the be-be - the be-be, the be-be - when I went outside the be-bebear was hiding" to "When I went outside, the .... (quiet pause), the bear was hiding."

[pregnant@40]

Stuttering is normal at this age. However, we sought speech therapy for our son when he was 4 b/c of a family history of stuttering (ie. both his grandfather and uncle on his dad's side). His stuttering was a little atypical, for in addition to repetitions of syllables, he would get stuck on words & have trouble getting them out. For example, he would say "maaa, maaa, maaa, mommmmm". It was profound, and my speech therapist friend told me he was a severe case.

It was difficult to find a speech therapist who focuses on stuttering, but once we did, we went for about 6 months. The therapists in this area are highly trained & have multiple tools for "slowing down" stuttered speech. Our child no longer stutters, but when words sometimes get "caught" (ie. he can't get the words out, and there is a prolonged pause), he has learned to stop and restart his speech.

Also, we had his tonsils/adenoids removed, and his speech blossomed afterwards. I think somehow his mouth/throat was just too crowded. The difference in his speech before & after his surgery was remarkable. However, my speech pathologist friend told me that she's never heard of this type of surgery curing stuttering. Oh, well. It happened to be our experience.

For my son, I think the combo of therapy + surgery + maturity led to his "cure". He no longer stutters.

But in your case, the odds are that it is a normal developmental phase.

[SunshineJ]

When DS was around that age he was in speech therapy for something unrelated, and began to develop a stutter. The speech therapist sent us home a bunch of information about it, with the overriding advice being to ignore it and not draw attention to it, as that could make the child self conscious and make it worse. Honestly we ignored that advice. Our son was VERY aware that he was stuttering and was very frustrated by it. It was similar to what you described - he'd just get excited and stutter and trip over words. We were infinitely patient with him, and once we realized it was disturbing to him, we'd calmly tell him to slow down and think what he wanted to say. We never drew attention to it really, and as it only happened when he was excited, he related the advice more to that aspect then the actual stutter. Within 3 months or so it lessened, and after a year he had pretty much stopped altogether.

[pregnant@40]

Originally Posted by SunshineJ

When DS was around that age he was in speech therapy for something unrelated, and began to develop a stutter. The speech therapist sent us home a bunch of information about it, with the overriding advice being to ignore it and not draw attention to it, as that could make the child self conscious and make it worse. Honestly we ignored that advice. Our son was VERY aware that he was stuttering and was very frustrated by it. It was similar to what you described - he'd just get excited and stutter and trip over words. We were infinitely patient with him, and once we realized it was disturbing to him, we'd calmly tell him to slow down and think what he wanted to say. We never drew attention to it really, and as it only happened when he was excited, he related the advice more to that aspect then the actual stutter. Within 3 months or so it lessened, and after a year he had pretty much stopped altogether.

We were told the same thing. Additionally, we had to slow down the speech in our own household (per Speech Therapy). My husband & I tend to interrupt one another and speak quickly. We learned to pause after hearing someone speak, in order to slow down the overall conversational flow in front of our child (ie. model slow speech). Also, whenever our child spoke, we NEVER interrupted him, always stopped what we were doing, looked him directly in the eye, & gave him plenty of time to complete his thoughts. We never completed his sentences for him, of course. And I never told him to slow down, but rather would say, "I am listening to you" & remain attentive. I've found that if there is a rare stutter on his part even today, that allowing him the room to slow down his pace helps him to quickly stop the stutter & regain his control. Hope this is not too confusing.