Is Studering Contagious??

There are different theories on stuttering - that it's 100% physical (a neurological problem between the brain's commands and the mouth's movement) or that it has psychological roots based on trauma or anxiety. Being anxious yourself, impatient, critical, etc. will only add to the boy's problems, and like the previous woman, may be a trigger for your daughter - something bad she can do to "get" you on occasion as she's mimicking the boy. If the mom that you're the nanny for is sensitive about how her kids act, this could contribute to her boy's lack of confidence in speaking. Drawing attention to it yourself is unlikely to help. More likely, the most help you could be is to remain calm and patient while the boy is trying to speak, same thing with your daughter. Virtually everyone has stuttered at one time or another... Good luck, practice deep breathing and patient smiles!

Hi C., Stuttering isn't contagious. Your daughter is probably just subconsiously mimicking a little bit and she will stop. My brother has stuttered since he was a small child and his 3 daughters each did it once in a while when they small but they all stopped. As a matter of fact, a lot of kids go through a stuttering stage when they are learning to talk (around 1-2 yrs.) and almost all grow out of it. I wouldn't worry at all about it.

I had a bit of a stuttering problem when I was a small child. My doctor at the time gave my mom some great advice by asking, "Who does it bother?" Of course the answer was that my stuttering only really bothered my mom, not me. So she stopped worrying about it and didn't call attention to it when I did have difficulty speaking. If the boy you are a nanny for is really having trouble getting something out tell him in a comforting way to take a breath and try again.
Good luck,
J.

ok its not contagious!! your around him and im sure your mind is just repeating it from time to time. im guessing your daughter is around him alot also. all you have to do is fix what your daughter says. im sure the mother wont mind if you helps him with his studering problem. if your that afraid to say something to her then just do it. but if you want her to be on the same track then i think you should say something to her. good luck!

Hi I'm a mother of a 6 year old and when she goes to my mom's house she comes back doing the same thing.My mom and brother both Studer. You would almost think that it would have to be contagious.I confronted my mom and she said I don't studer.So i gave up But when my daughter comes home I remind her to stop studering.

I think your daughter is just mimicking the other child. Of course, if it continues or gets worse, I would check with her doctor (you know your child best).

Regarding the stuttering child, my daughter went through a brief stuttering phase at around age 2.5. I read up on the subject, and it can be just a developmental phase that some kids go through with their speech. It resolved before I had enough concern to call her doctor.

I might try to gently raise this issue with the child's mother. I'm sure she's noticed and must be concerned. It is important that you both are on the same page on how to approach the stuttering in order to improve the problem. I've read that the best way to handle this is to be patient, let the child finish his sentence, do not finish the words for him, and do not correct his stuttered words. Basically, be very patient and do not act like anything is abnormal. Of course, if the issue persists, a doctor or speech therapist can give you professional advice based on his specific problem. Good luck to you.

My son had this same issue. A kid at the sitter's was studdering and was seeing a speech therapist for the issue and my son would "repeat" everything the other kid said. We would just tell our son to slow down when he was speaking or ask him to repeat it more slowly. It freaked me out, but it passed.

I've never heard that studdering is 'contagious'; however, I was reading my BabyCenter email today and it had this article: http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_speech-problems_6415...
which talks about 2 year olds and studdering (they say it's normal part of learning to speak.)
I've noticed that my 2.5 yr old has been hesitating a bit, too, but the article explains why. It makes sense that their brains are working faster than their newly found language can articulate. Hope this helps!

Just wondering, is the child you babysit for seeing a speech therapist? That will help, I don't know that it will stop the stuttering, but it will certainly help. I know when my kids were younger they used to get excited and stutter all the time, granted this is different, but try to get him to slow down and think of what it is that he wants to say before he says it. I am not sure that it is contageous, I think it is more like if you go move down south from here you will start to have that southern draw.
Good Luck!