stuttering 4 year old? normal phase??

[marchmom19]

Need to ask if this is normal ... my 4 year old daughter has been stuttering lately. She talks a lot and too fast...and starts the sentence repeating a word like 'I I I ', 'but but but',... not having trouble with the words just thinking too fast and words coming out slower than she thinks .. She is so creative with her language and has lots of stories to tell.

She is also bilingual too. But not really speaking her second language since we moved away from Germany. She understands it though when we speak it to her. Dont want to push her.

Not sure if that affects it. I encouraged Dh to speak with her more in German, but dh always goes back and forth with the two and thinks it confuses her so doesnt want to do it now that she is stuttering.

Any tips?

thanks

[QueeTheBean]

For what it is worth, I swear that every 4 year old I know has gone through this & their mamas have worried about it! I think it is absolutely normal!!

If you are worried, check with her doctor, of course, but I'll bet she's jsut fine & will get back to her regular speech before you know it!

Good luck!

[marchmom19]

thanks for reassurance. That is what I thought that it was a phase.

But then everyone was pointing it out to me, so then I started to get concerned, sis, hubby, mil etc.

Thanks again.

[woo27ks]

my ds has been stuttering off and on since he was 3yrs. old; he's now 4. it comes and goes. it would get worse and then better. we had him evaluated by a speech therapist after this went on for about 6 months. she said it was normal and to not draw attention to it. we were to never mention it or try and help him. we were to give him the feeling that we had all the time in the world to listen to him and to speak slowly and clearly when we spoke to him. i think there's a website - stuttering.org or something like that. it has ideas for kids that stutter. it's been almost a year since he started and he hardly ever does it. i hope that helps.

[LunaMom]

Sounds normal to me. My DD does this, too. It seems like her brain is going faster than her mouth and she's just having a hard time with that! Sometimes she'll even go back to the beginning of the sentence when this happens. It was happening with the most frequency at age four, and now that she's five I barely notice it - partly because it happens less and partly because I don't worry about it anymore!

[stafl]

My three-year-old stammers, but so do I so I have never worried about it.

[1jooj]

I am resurrecting this thread just to ask:

Then, I should not worry when ds says, "I, I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I...want, want want want want want..." every so often? Quite often? Turned 3 today. He's got a checkup in a month, so I'll ask the ped, but in the meantime?

I tell everyone I think it is normal, and I get sooooo mad when ignorant ADULTS make fun of it!!!

[woo27ks]

my son who is 4 goes through stages with his stuttering. no one has ever made him aware of it. we just listen to him and give him our undivided attention. it's totally normal - at least that's what our ped, speech therapist and everything i've read has said. it has gotten soooooo much better in the last 6 months. but it went on for about 7 months - off and on. again - the best thing to do is to not draw attention to it - ever - model slow speech, be patient with him - don't ever finish words or sentences for him... i think the website i found was www.stutteringhelp.com - that could be totally wrong but i think i did a google search for child stuttering or something like that. good luck.

[bluehalo]

My newly turned 4 yo did this *a lot* last year. It was totally freaky because it started one morning out of the blue, and it was severe. I was really concerned ... but it seemed to wane over the next few weeks until after a few months DH and I suddenly realized that E. wasn't stuttering anymore. He's "relapsed" once or twice in the meantime, and each time it's been a bit better (hasn't started out as severe, and got better more rapidly). I wish I could figure out what the "trigger" is, if there is one ... but like everyone else said, we just tried to go w/ the flow and not make a big deal out of it. It was harder this very last time he started having problems w/ it again, b/c it was frustrating *him*, and he's start crying or just start feeling really angry b/c he couldn't say what he was wanting to say. That made me really sad for him, and it was hard just to sit back and watch him work through it.

[marchmom19]

my daughter stutters over whole words too mainly those starting a sentence like 'I.I.I.' or 'But But But'. I tell her to stop, think and then speak or to slow down that seems to help. She has so many wonderful stories, imagination and is trying to formulate them into sentences to tell us .

We also have lots of stress in our life at this time too, I wouldnt be surprised if that is also triggering it?

Dh though is afraid to continue to speak to her in her second language (she was quite fluent bilingually till we moved back from our former country) due to her stuttering. Thinking she is confused with the two languages.

[JenLove]

Originally Posted by LunaMom

Sounds normal to me. My DD does this, too. It seems like her brain is going faster than her mouth and she's just having a hard time with that!

My nephew, who is 3, also started stuttering. My sister had a checkup soon after it started so she consulted the Dr. about it. He recommended ignoring it, being patient when he is speaking, and it should just go away.

It never happened when he was alone playing or pretending to read a book. But, if he happened to see something he was excited about he would stutter through the sentences. It's been about 4 months since he started and she said he is so much better. His stuttering is far and few between now.

[skj474]

Ds does this too, he is 3. he usually does it when he is excited and is talking fast. My dad seems to think its a problem but I don't think so, as he only does it when he trys to talk to fast. My Dad is very protective of his ONLY grandson

[1jooj]

I have been paying more attention in the past couple of days, and I find too that ds does this when he's excited, or soetimes when input starts to overcome output. You know how, for example when you're talking, and something catches your eye, you stop midsentence? I have caught him battling with the "outside forces" to finish a thought. So he sticks on a word, repeating it while he struggles to find the next one. I think this is a very different kind of stutter from the one where you know what word you need to say but you cannot make your mouth make it.