My son started stuttering...

Carolyn - posted on 01/11/2009

HI there. First, don't panic! My eldest son, now 13, did exactly the same at 2-3yrs. We were very worried, but a speech therapist assessed him and said that his vocabulary and understanding were so far ahead of his physical development he simply couldn't get the words out fast enough. She advised us to acknowledge his stammering - "oh dear, your words are a bit sticky today aren't they, never mind" and give him plenty of low-key attention, so not to eyeball him when he was trying to talk but make sure he was in a quiet, calm space and knew we were listening. This may not work for your son - do get advice from a professional if you can - but I've since come across many mums with bright children who have had similar experiences while their children were small. I don't know any who still stammer. My son did this for about 6 months and then it simply vanished. Hang in there!

Robin - posted on 01/08/2009

So weird! My son did the same thing. We were so worried - he stuttered very badly for about 4 to 6 months, and right when we were ready to call in a specialist, he stopped as suddenly as he started.

Nancy - posted on 01/08/2009

Re: whether you should worry: Is the stutter "forced" -- effortful with eye blinks or head-twitches? Is it causing the child consternation? Is the child talking less because of the stutter? Is there a family history of stuttering? If you said yes to any of these, you should hop on it. But if its an easy disfluency, b-b-b-b-ball -- that's just normal kid development stuff. What Aaron had was not like that, and that mommy instinct told me so right away. The sad news is that there is a tight window of opportunity to correct the synapse problem if it is a problem. If you don't do anything, the Goal of speech therapy after age 5 is not perfect fluency -- the door has closed.

Bonnie - posted on 01/07/2009

I agree He has so much to say that he is trying to say it all at once before his mind thinks of something else. I wouldn't worry!

Nancy - posted on 01/07/2009

My son did too! right around the same time -- about 28 months old. I grew up as a stutterer and had mostly poor speech therapy, and then found the good stuff. We got right on it, taking it seriously, mostly because it wasn't an easy disfluency, it was forced with head jerking and locked-mouth. He couldn't say "mommy" after 5 breaths - and stopped talking. We live in Florida but finally found an expert in pediatric stuttering in NYC, Elena Caffentzis : ecaffentzis@stutteringtreatment.org After about a year of turning our house into speech therapy, he is 100% fluent.

Here's the memo I wrote to our family & friends about Elena's amazing advice 5 years ago:



Ok, Team,

I just finished talking with the world pediatric speech guru in New York City, and here's the plan:



There is almost a 100% success rate for early detection and intervention of early childhood stuttering. (woo-hoo!)

The theory is that there are so many things going on neurologically that their speech needs a break. His speech is "broken" in the same sense that when a leg breaks, it needs a rest. (I didn't say that well, but you know what I mean.)



1) The goal is to ask/ require Aaron speak as little as possible, in order to give his speech mechanism a break.

• Mr. Rogers is our role model. VERY slow speech with lots of pauses. Almost baby-talk. and using Very simple phrases. [We all know that this will be hardest for ME!]

• Model this speech around Aaron all the time -- when Scott and I talk with each other, when I talk with the nanny, etc.

• Making very few speech demands of him.

• He should have virtually NO performing -speech. "Tell Mr. Smith how old you are." "Can you tell Mutti about the tulips?"

• Rather than saying, "What did you and Mutti do today?" Say, "Mutti told me that you went to the zoo together and saw lots of birds!" If he comments, fine. But don't make a follow-up question -- if he says, "they were big!" don't say "and how many were there?"

• Rather than saying, "What would you like for dinner tonight?" Saying, "Would you like noodles or chicken?"

2) Slowing down his day. Doing less.

I don't know that he's particularly hurried now -- but just being conscious of the importance of taking it easy.



3) Making sure Aaron is getting enough sleep.

8:00pm start-time for bed time is a must. In bed by 9:00pm.

This means no staying over at Mutti & Big D's to finish dinner or dessert.

This means no last-minute play time at the Miller's.

This means taking the time to do a nice sleepy routine before nap time, so that he'll stay asleep longer - 2 hours.



4) Doing lots of child-directed play

Letting Aaron lead the play activity. If he wants to quietly play with cars, draw, paint, swing on the swing or go for a walk, doing that, rather than the "plan" for the day.



5) It is OK to recognize that sometimes his speech is rough, bumpy or hard.

• "Boy, that was a hard word."

• I've told him, "you know mommy had bumpy speech when she was little too."

• Then, Only if it's a very low-key time, asking him to say the troublesome word slowly with you. This is not something to focus on inordinately, but not to be the elephant in the middle of the living room either.

6) Continue with the earlier suggestions:



To do:

Maintain eye contact

Stay calm

Respond to WHAT he says, rather than how he says it.

Be patient.

Model easy speech



Don't:

Interrupt

Finish his sentences

Pounce right after he gets a sentence out

Tell him to "slow down" or "take a deep breath".



The toughest part, for me anyway, is going to be speaking very slowly with lots of pauses, Mr. Rogers-style. But it's also the most important.



In advance, Thank you all! Nancy

Melody - posted on 01/07/2009

My son started "stuttering" at about that age. I sought help around age 3 with a speech pathologist recommended by his preschool. They threw around all kinds of labels, after a about a year of "speech therapy" and referral for testing for ADHD, Asperger's to rule out Autism. I finally ended up with two life saver people. The first being a psychologist who specialized in giftedness and gifted children and a speech pathologist that also was very familiar  with autistic and highly gifted children. First of all, it is VERY common for children to stutter when they are first learning to talk and most grow out of it on their own with no intervention. The advice from the speech pathologist is to NOT draw attention to it and to NOT finish their sentences. Also talking slow and rhythmically like Mr Rogers and kneeling down, getting on their level and giving eye contact also helps them. With these gifted children, their brains work way more rapidly than their musculature development. Meaning their vocal musculature is not mature enough for them to sound out words that are in their head. Word production problem is what they call it. Anyway, I would try the slowing down doing the Mr. Rogers mode of speaking, also 5-10 minutes of undivided attention before bedtime also helped my son the most. Here's a website that my speech pathologist referred me to that has lots of info that may help give you peace of mind. hope this helps a bit. good luck!   http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.as...

Geline - posted on 01/06/2009

thanks for all your responses! his stuttering has decreased... he only does so when he's worried or excited like what rebekah explained. thanks again.

Kate - posted on 12/23/2008

Same thing happened to my boy. He started stuttering around age 2 as he was speaking in sentences at abut 20 months. We got him to slow down when talking to us and kept calm when he was talking to us so that he felt relaxed. We eventually took him to speech therapist and she worked on him and he got a lot better. He recently started stuttering again but it was due to tiredness and stress as he came to the end of the year. Sometimes his brain goes to quick for his mouth and his mouth has barely begun the first sentence while his brain is on to it's third or fourth sentence. We just try to keep him cal and limit his anxiety.

Rebekah - posted on 12/22/2008

I agree totally. My son did this sometimes right around the same age, and still does occasionally. Mostly when he's really excited. I wouldn't worry about it at this point.

Deborah - posted on 12/21/2008

Don't panic! This is actually normal and right around this exact age. It is a sign that his thought process is going faster than his mouth can do. It should be a short term thing as he finds away to coordinate all of it. (And just b/c he spoke in sentences before just means that he is becoming more complicated in his thought process which is a good thing!) If he is still stuttering to the level that he is now in 3 or 4 months you might want to see a speech therapist and your ped. could guide you on this.