stuttering or playing with sound?

[Casha'sMommy]

To preface, 2yo ds has done just about everything a little bit ahead of the "norm". He matched colors at 12 months and began counting at 18 months. We definitely suspect he too is gifted.

Flash forward to the present. While at dd's violin lesson ds dumped a US map puzzle that belongs to the teachers children. The puzzle has some rather tiny pieces (Maine is its own piece) and the teacher and I were helping ds put the puzzle back together. The teacher joked that she isn't a geography buff and asked ds "What is this?" while holding up a puzzle piece. I didn't hear ds respond but the teacher leaned over and asked "Is he reading?" I said, "No???" The teacher said, "Well he just answered my question and he was correct." I wasn't sure what I thought of that and considered that the teacher may have misunderstood ds and thought he was correct when he wasn't.

Later that evening, I was telling dh about the puzzle incident and he reminded me that we have yet to be able to determine how ds can pick out every jeep vehicle he sees. Does he recognize the shape of the vehicles or is he seeing the word JEEP on each one?

24 hours after the puzzle, the kids were snuggling with us in bed (this past Saturday) watching a pbs show. On this particular show, the pig character was spelling the word MILK. The pig asked "what letter makes the mmmmm sound?" After a few seconds he says "M!" The same for I and L. Then the pig asks "What letter makes the ck ck ck sound?" Ds says, "K" and then the pig says "k". I looked over at dh just to see that he was sleeping again. lol I still don't know what to think of all of this but whatever.

Now, onto my question. With all that ds is doing (above) I'm wondering if he's begun to stutter or is he playing with sound? Each word he says in a sentence that ends with a consonant is followed by the last sound of each word. For example, he might say "Mom-m-m-m I want-t-t-t-t some-m-m-m-m juice-s-s-s-s-s." This started a few weeks ago with his just doing it here and there but has become his normal speech. I imagine if he is beginning to read that he may very well be playing with the letter sounds but I don't want to brush off something that may be a bigger issue.

Should I be concerned?

Thanks for sticking around to read the entire post.

Cate

[KCMichigan]

I would just keep an eye on it.

Both my DDs have gone through stuttering phases, but DH is a lifelong stutterer.

For DD it is often in periods of 2-3 months they will stutter, often it is because they are thinking faster than they can talk and/or are building a large vocabulary/growth phase. Sometimes it is words, sometimes starting/ending sounds. It often phases out just as I get worried. They have done this since age 2 to now (they are 6).

For DH it is particular sounds (and always has been) that are more difficult to say.

So just keep watching, the best advice a Speech Lang. Pathologist gave me was to ignore it completely unless they seem frustrated and then to 'help' but not correct them. (if they want a book and are saying  I want a b-b-b-b-b-b-b   - you give them a moment and reply " You want a book? Here it is."). Keeping it 'no big deal' was her key idea. It is developmentally appropriate for awhile yet-- I was told 7ish for some sounds, and the same age for stuttering, but varies on the intensity and presentation of the stutter. 

[Jen Muise]

I'm with KCMichigan.  At that young age, occasional stuttering is quite common.  The process of talking is quite complex and developmentally all the bits of the brain might not be working at the same pace as the muscles required to produce sounds etc.  Often kids will draw out words as a sort of place holder while they organize themselves to say the next word.  If they're still stuttering when they get to grade 1 or so, or it seems to be causing them distress, then I'd probably go see a speech pathologist but I'd probably make a note of it and blow it off until then.  Actually that's exactly what I've done with both my girls, so no probably about it :)

[flightgoddess]

My son has stuttered a bit too, he is 3 and we have a new baby. So far, his teachers say it is a developmental stage, and just to keep an eye on it. It has lessened a lot in the last 6 weeks, so instead of all day stuttering, it just pops up a couple times a week. I was told that if it is persisting and still occurs 6-9 months from now, to then get further evaluation

[ellemenope]

Originally Posted by Casha'sMommy 

Now, onto my question. With all that ds is doing (above) I'm wondering if he's begun to stutter or is he playing with sound? Each word he says in a sentence that ends with a consonant is followed by the last sound of each word. For example, he might say "Mom-m-m-m I want-t-t-t-t some-m-m-m-m juice-s-s-s-s-s." This started a few weeks ago with his just doing it here and there but has become his normal speech. I imagine if he is beginning to read that he may very well be playing with the letter sounds but I don't want to brush off something that may be a bigger issue.

Should I be concerned?

Thanks for sticking around to read the entire post.

Cate

My DD went through the typical toddler stutter a couple of months before she turned two. She would repeat the first word in a sentence three or four times before moving on. This seems to be really common and happens after a jump in language acquisition. It is absolutely nothing to worry about. But, what you are describing sounds different and more like what my DD did when she was about 2.5. She was also just figuring out the whole reading thing at the time.  She would break down entire words, even sentences into their individual phonemes. It was then that we started to spell out words to her and were surprised to find out she could decode them. I would say that by the time she was doing all this she was already visually decoding-- as in looking at a CVC word and blending the sounds. But, she was far better at doing everything aurally. I think she still is, and she is now at about a first grade level visually.

I would not be concerned AT ALL and just go along with it. My DD was very aural and this was a huge, fun game. The letter sounds and phonemes are really important to her, still. She is also ridiculously good at rhyming and enjoys making up poems. Looking back on it, I do think the phase had something to do with her cracking the code. It was her way, and I am glad I followed her lead and let her explore it entirely.

[whatsnextmom]

Well, I do know that while it's not typical, it's also not uncommon for preschool age kids to go through a temporary stuttering stage. Most, but not all kids outgrow it so it's not a bad idea to talk to the doctor about it just to have it on the record. At this point though, it's not something to stress too much about either.

My own DS developed a stutter before his 3rd birthday that was part of his regular speech for a few months. After that it started popping up only when especially excited or his mind is racing. It presents more like "looping" for lack of a better word. He will have to restart a sentence several times before he can find and get all the right words out. Using your example, when excited, he'll sound like this "mom.. mom I... m-mom a want....want some juice" and it'll be clear that it's a bit of a struggle for him but as he's aged it's lessened dramatically... probably because at age 11, he has much better control over his emotions than he did at 5 or 6. He knows how to calm himself before trying to explain whatever is blowing his mind at the moment lol. He never qualified for speech, it's never been an issue and no one but DH and I have noticed past that initial stuttering stage so we leave it alone.

I have not experienced early readers doing this but I also suspect this is something that will pass. Bring it up at your next well-visit but for now, just be patient, give him time to get his thoughts out and try not to make it a big deal.

[Tigerle]

I'm wondering whether he may have heard a character talk exactly like that on another educational show about phonemic awareness, when you weren't in the room? DS occasionally starts peppering his sentences with uh-uh-uh[word]? uh-uh-uh [sentence]? and it sounds positively demented, but I know he is imitating his favourite character from his science videos not getting something. I have asked him to do this only at home!

I also remember him playing around with phonemes around that age, taking sounds "away" or "adding" them and asking which new word that might produce (he only started reading now, three years later, so it may not mean that reading is right around the corner).

I have not heard of a stuttering disorder that makes children repeat the last sound as opposed to the first but of course it might exist....I know if it is a stutter you wouldn't want to draw attention to it at all, but have you just, casually, tried asking him to stop because he was hard to understand? just a thought. It may be just an odd habit he's gotten himself into, playing with sounds, but it might be harder to kill the longer you let it go.

[Casha'sMommy]

It doesn't feel like a stutter because it only occurs at the end of a word with a consonant, not vowels. It began with his doing it only on the first and last words of sentences and it has now gone to every single word. He appears to be thinking or listening while he's doing this. (I've been watching very closely today.)

My mother reminded me today of another funny thing he did with letters. I'd forgotten, but, the other night, while getting ds into bed, I asked dh "Where's n-e-m-o?" and ds yelled "NEMO!" Dh said he thought it happened because I spelled it too quickly and ds was actually able to hear Nemo out of n-e-m-o. Could he really be decoding already? help? lol

fwiw, out of 5 dc none have had a stutter so that would all be new to me. Also, none of them has ever decoded at this young of an age. I actually had one late-ish reader, whatever late is, and one that actually had me concerned and didn't even begin reading until 7.5yo. He's now the most voracious reader in the family.

[Casha'sMommy]

Tigerle- Very good point. I'm not certain how often he's watched shows like this. He's mostly into train shows and videos so he watches some Thomas on tv, dvd, and videos online. He's also obsessed with racing so he watches some race videos on dvd and online.

I'm working this all out while chatting here so forgive my chattiness.

[Casha'sMommy]

ellemenope - Thanks for the encouraging words. We've been struggling with family understanding why we do the things we do when we're just following the lead of our children. Giving our 2yo an electric train and 5yo dd long-ish periods of computer and video game time. That's a topic for a separate post. lol

Thank you!

[aishamama]

I wanted to also give some reassurance. My son stuttered up til school starting this year. It's hardly noticeable now and he's able to express himself. He's slow in getting his point out but he's not stuttering hardly.  I was worried for a while because he would repeat so much that it was hard for me to remain patient, of course I did but it was frustrating for all. I remember he used to stutter phrases and half parts of the sentences then at one point he'd start all over. It would feel like a year trying to tell a simple sentence.  I think it started around 2.5 and he's now just a little more than 6.

I don't know how often it doesn't ease itself away but I wouldn't worry too much at his time.