Stuttering when chatting....common?

In the past few days, DS has developed a stutter when he's trying to talk. He will say things like "C-c-c-c-c-c an we go to the park?" or "Wa-wa-wa-We are all done now?" Eventually he gets his thoughts out but I can tell how frustrating it is for him. Earlier today, he cried out, "Mommy, I don't have the words, I can't talk!" I called the pedi and spoke with a nurse and explained everything, and she said,"This is completely normal for age three" and not to stress about it, to tell him to take deep breaths and speak slowly. I've been doing this all day, and the stuttering has grown more consistent. DD was doing a version of this a few weeks ago but not as much and it passed quickly, which makes me think it's just a stage. Just wanted to see who else has experienced this, did your child outgrow it and when, and any other suggestions. Thank you in advance.

 

Yes we had as well with all 3. The advice I read was to ignore it completely. Don't finish the word for him, don't draw attention to it, just listen. Their brains are much faster than they can develop speech and it is quite common. It went away within a few weeks for us.

 

We had the same thing with my son. With him you could just tell his brain was moving a bit faster than he could get the words out. No issues now with it.

 

Yup, normal around that age. Just let him go with it and it will go away on its own. I think it is an issue if he does it after 5 or so.

 

Yes, it's fairly common at this age. Alyssa stammered for a while, she was pretty bad and she did eventually outgrow it on her own. (We got some advice from a speech therapist but she never had any therapy sessions). Like pp's have said in most cases it's just that their brains are running faster than their mouths can keep up with.
I'm surprised that the nurse advised you to tell him to breathe deeply and speak slowly. Everything I've read/been told says to not tell children to change their speech or otherwise draw extra attention to the stammer.

These were main points the therapist gave us to help Alyssa:
1a. Make sure everyone gets a turn to talk-This was a big thing for us, often if they were excited about something they would be talking over each other and trying to go fast. That made her stutter considerably worse.
1b. Give him time to talk-Never fill in words or finish his sentences. As much as possible don't let his sister finish the sentence for him either. This was something we had to work on with Bryony, it was hard going for the first week or two but we really stressed that they needed to take turns to speak and it did work. I would tell them "speak one at a time", "wait a minute, X is speaking", "Alyssa is telling me herself" and so on, basically I would interrupt any interrupting and get the first child to finish what they were saying (it did go both ways because Alyssa would start talking when Bryony was talking as well).
2. Don't tell him to slow down/take a breath etc-We were told not to say things like "slow down" "take a deep breath" "try starting again" as this can draw attention to the stutter and make him more aware/self-conscious of it.
3. Slow down your speech and talk clearly-This is just a sort of role modeling to get him to copy you. Also try and use short, simple sentences. By modelling slower speech it will encourage him to speak more slowly, without even knowing/thinking about it. It can also help him feel less rushed. If he asks a question pause before you answer, not for ages, it's just to show that it's ok to take the time to think about what you want to say.
4. Repeat his sentences back to him slowly and clearly when possible-This is to let him hear his words 'correctly', much the same way as you'd do if they mispronounced a word. It doesn't have to be word for word, make it conversational-eg "There, there, there there's a bird" "Oh, yes. There's a bird in the garden. I can see it." "O-o-o-o-o-on the tree." "It is on the tree, that's where birds live."
Some children stutter worse when they are tired
We were also told to have one-on-one time (we called it special time and did it with Bryony too, at different times obviously) every day for 10 minutes. We would let A pick the activity (no TV or books though, and no radio on in the background) and just talk with her as we played.

I hope this turns out to be a very quick stage for your son too.

 

Yes!! My guys have both had some of the normal speech hesitation and repetitions that are very common among toddlers, but in the last 2-3 months Nate has developed a very pronounced stutter. It's gotten so bad that sometimes he will hit himself when trying to talk, he can take up to 30 seconds to finish *1 word*, and will occasionally have to whisper the end to a sentence. His whole personality has changed too. He used to be very outgoing, and was *very* verbally advanced (speaking in full sentences by 18 months); now he's very withdrawn and barely says a word. Needless to say, I'm extremely concerned, mainly because it obviously bothers *him*.

I've done a lot of reading, and everything reputable confirms the advice that Zoe gave above. There is also "normal" toddler/preschooler stuttering, and "bad" stuttering (my words). Repetitions of entire words ("look look look, a bunny!") is very typical and something that is usually outgrown. Stuttering of individual sounds ("wa-wa-wa-wa-what's that") can be indicative of more permanent stuttering. Risk factors for stuttering include being a boy and having a family history of stuttering. Nate is obviously a boy, but we have no family history of stuttering.

This has literally been eating me alive for the last few months, and I have a lot of anxiety about it. The boys have their 3 year ped visit on Thursday, and I'm going to talk seriously with the doctor about this. I will push for intervention sooner rather than later, because Nate has changed from a gregarious, happy boy into a shy anxious child. Based on what I've read, Nate has severe stuttering (stutters on more than 10% of his words, and some days the only thing he can say is "la" (for "yes"). He's undergone a huge regression in speech, and I'm not willing to take a "wait and see" approach.

Here are some good references I found when researching this:

http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Parents/starkweather.html
http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=6

Definitely schedule a visit with your ped if you are concerned. I got the same answer that you got when I called the nurse for advice, but it's only gotten worse and I need to see what we can do to help him.

Good luck to you! :hug:

 

Valerie-Thanks for the links, they were really interesting, especially the first one. I'm sorry to hear Nate's having so much trouble with his stutter. Alyssa's was bad but it didn't affect her personality or stop her from wanting to talk. There were times when she got cross or upset at not being able to say what she wanted to (saying things like "I can't say it"), we used to call it her 'bumpy words'. Mostly though she just carried on without mentioning it.
Her stutter started just after she turned two-they were also very verbally advanced-and it took until she was five for the speech therapist to discharge her (as I said in my first post she didn't have any therapy sessions, but she did have to go for an assessment every year and we got the advice on how to help her at home).
I really hope your pedi can get him referred to someone quickly so you can get a plan in place to help him. It must be very hard to watch his stutter have such a bad effect on him. :hug: Something positive to try and keep in mind is that the vast majority of young children (those under 7) will overcome any speech issues they have completely. My older sister is actually a speech therapist and she works with the under-5's, I'd be happy to ask her for ideas of games/activities you can do to work with Nate if you'd like.

 

Thanks Zoe!! :hug: If you wouldn't mind asking your sister and posting some suggestions to this thread, that would be really helpful.

 

We went through this too - I was really worried - but in our case it did pass. When Gavin would do it - it appeared his mind was just working faster than he could get the words together and out - he would repeat words - like can, can, can, can I have some milk.

 

Hey, I just thought I'd update this thread with the info that I got from my ped today. He said that there is "developmental stuttering" which is very normal, and stuttering that can be a problem. The fact that Nate is getting frustrated and is having a personality change increases the likelihood that there is a problem, so he recommends getting an evaluation. I'm actually very relieved that he took this seriously and wants to be proactive. We got a referral to the speech therapy unit in the hospital where the ped practices. We will get an evaluation, that we can take to the principal of the school where the boys will be attending elementary school. The ped said that private speech therapy can be very expensive, but the school is mandated by the federal government to provide speech therapy to children in the community.

Luckily the preschool in which we've enrolled the boys is hosted in the school where they will attend K-5. So after the eval, I'll take the results to the school and they will do their own evaluation and make recommendations for treatment.

I feel a lot better that we're taking action, and not a "wait and see" approach. I'm calling the speech pathology center today, and will hopefully get Nate in soon so we can see where he stands and what we need to do.

Hope this helps!

 

it started w/mine a few months after turning 3--right after getting a speech eval back that he had totally caught up and was normal! however, i've been reading lots of books now that say it's totally normal. his speech has gotten so good that his mouth can't keep up w/him mind (just like his big feet can't keep up w/his body and he falls over them all the time, lol!). sounds like it's totally normal.

take care, jl