Daughter Is Suddenly Stuttering

If you are really concerned and live in IN contact First Steps and they should be able to have a speech therapist evaluate her. It will at least give you peace of mind.

I was a stutterer when I was younger. I remember if I was around very critical people I tended to stutter more. It is very easy for a family member to forget other family members have feelings too. Try to use positives rather than negatives even when you find your child making a mistake to build up her self esteem and encourage other family and freinds to do the same.

i was just at the doctor today with my 3 year old (3 year check up, not for this). very similar thing. she talks great & almost non-stop! then all of a sudden for about a week at a time she'll start stuttering really bad, then it goes away. it's happened twice. he told me that it's nothing to worry about and just part of the language development. if it lasts 4-6 month and continues to get worse, then be worried. of course all doctors are different and if you are worried, call yours

totally normal and age appropriate. Usually it's a sign of their brain working faster then their mouth.

Hi C.! I'm an speech path n my advice is to completely ignore it. It is common for children to hav "normal dysfluencies" between 2-6yrs old. They have so much to say n their minds are working over time. These dysfluencies should clear up just as quickly as they came in! Hope this helped!
D.

Like the other moms, my daughter started stuttering around 3 years and I was told just to ignore it. But I didnt feel she just couldnt get the words out fast enough...I had just started back to work full time, and I thought this had something to do with it. I consulted her teacher at PreSchool, and indeed she sent her to the Speech teacher.
She said her stuttering was "situational", so I was more concerned with how I should handle it when she stuttered so this did not become a permanent thing. We never ignored it, but just told her to take a breath, and slow down. I also realized that I was a big sentence finisher. You get so used to doing that for them, so I had to work on that. The stuttering lasted 6-8 months (broke my heart)but now she is fine. She is 4 and still sees the speech teacher (fine by me!), and stutters every now and then, but I can see that now it is a case of her brain moving faster than her mouth, because she usually ends up saying, "oh forget it" when she cant get it out fast enough. Good Luck, dont worry, and consult your teacher/doctor. It wont hurt to just get her checked out.

C.,

I have twin 2 year old boys. Both early talkers and same thing happened with one of them - he started stuttering and I was very worried. However, it was a very short phase and it's now gone. I, too, think it sounded as if he had so much to say he couldn't get it out fast enough. I would keep a close eye on it but not worry too much. If it persists or gets worse, maybe consult your doctor.

Before I got too freaked out about it I would try Mom taking a deep breath as well. She may be feeling your anxiety around her stuttering which may make it worse. A real stutter sounds very different than the feeling that your brain is moving faster than your lips. This may be a developmental stage. Encourage her to take her time and be very patient yourself with this. You can always have her evaluated if it doesn't start to clear up.

My daughter has apraxia-where she leaves off beginning and endings of words that she can normally say. The intersting thing about this is that it only happens when her vocabulary is taking a growth spurt. As her brain is aquiring more words, he speech gets worse. Between the ages of 2 and 4 I was really concerned. I had seen this pattern emerge and go away several times. So, what I would do is wait and see if it goes away after a month. In the meantime, at Child and Family Connections, they can screen her speech. There are many free places in Illinois for children under the age of 3 to get free help. Once she turns 3, it's up to your local school district. Good luck!

I am a speech-language pathologist, and I just want to assure you that this is a typical part of language development. Don't be concerned at this point. Children often repeat words or phrases during this period of acquiring language. The best thing you can do is to slow down your own rate of speech, give her time to coordinate her thoughts and speech, and be patient while she's telling you her wonderful thoughts! The biggest help is modeling a slower rate of speech for her. We don't realize how fast we talk sometimes. True stuttering is sound repetitions (b-b-b-bye) or syllable repetitions (ba-ba-ba-banana) that happen more than 3 percent of the time. Hope that helps!

Hi C..
I know that her speech may be a upsetting to you. It upset me when my daughter did it. She began at four and didn't stop till she was almost six. She's now 14 and has never done it again. I don't think you should worry about it. It's a normal part of their development. Funny thing is that my six year old son has never stuttered. So I guess it depends on the child. I hope that this helps to ease your mind.

I don't really have advice(but wanted to share my experience, since I know as moms our minds tend to go to worst case scenarios). My son never stuttered at all, then started in kindergarten. Same thing-- he was always articulate, and had no trauma. It lasted for about a year and a half, then it went away as fast as it started. I never got any explanation, and he never qualified for speech services in the school.