Stuttering - Oak Lawn, IL

I am a Pediatric Speech-Langauge Pathologist and I have treated several children for stuttering. However, many times stutterin is considered normal in children it all depends on the type of stuttering they are doing, how long each "stutter" is lasting and the length of time they have been doing it. The best thing to do is meet with a Speech-Langauge Pathologist and have them run a full evaluation to assess thier stuttering. Sometimes the children will grow out of it and some times a little bit of thearpy is needed to help get over the difficulties they are having. The earlier the better in my opinion.

Good Luck
K. O.

My son started stuttering at aound 3 yo and I was so worried. I took him to the doctor and nothing was wrong.
He did this on and off for about a year. He is a very bright child and I think sometimes what he was thinking did not come out as fast in words. My son is now 6 yo and in Kindergarten and he is just find. He reads at a 2nd grade level and does math at a 1st grade level. So as long as there is nothing wrong medically, he will outgrow it.

I would say anything that smore than a couple of weeks is not really a phase. Unfortunately, most of the preschool screenings through the school district are done for the year. There are many private places in the area, including Naperville, that do screenings. They are more costly. Your pediatrician can give you a list of people in the area and write you a prescription for a speech evaluation. If your gut is telling you this is an issue, it probably is. I went through speech issues with my youngest daughter myself last year. There are really some wonderful places. Good luck.

Look up your local school district and ask at what age they start childhood development evaluations and schedule an appointment. It is free from your school district. If they feel your child needs help they will help you get it. If they feel the child needs another year of growth, they will have you do another assessment later.

Contact your local school district about early intervention and help with speech therapy. Don't wait, the help is free

My sister stuttered as a small child. VERY BAD for a long time. Speech therapy may be needed. Have your child eveluated at once. You may qualify for free services, or insurance should cover that. Start with your pediatric dr., some park dist or school dist offer services as well. Do not woory... It is TOTALLY fixable. earlier intervention is always the best! It can be hard to face that, but my son had therapy and it was the best thing i ever did:)
IT is not anything you did! Keep your chin up!

About a month after my second child was born my first daughter, who was two at the time, began to stutter. She would have difficulty beginning sentences and would repeat the beginning of a word numerous times or elongate the beginning sound and she sometimes would repeat sounds in the middle of sentences. She also would squint her eyes and scrunch up her face. At first she did not seem to notice, but then she would get frustrated and say her words were stuck and she could not get them out. My husband and I always remained calm and gave her the opportunity to get her words out and we never finished her sentences for her. We were quite worried so we talked to her pediatrician who said it was probably a phase she would outgrow and was common in children who were very verbal (by 18 months she had a vocabulary of over 750 words and spoke in 15-20 word sentences). However, I was still concerned and wanted to do everything possible to help her so we contacted Child and Family Connections and had a speech and language assessment completed. This evaluation is a free service. They determined that she did not meet the criteria for a speech disability and felt that it was just a phase. They recommended speaking slowly to her, allowing her to finish her thoughts without interruption or correction, and giving direct eye contact. Her stuttering lasted for about two months and then completely disappeared and she is a very verbal, articulate, almost 3 year old. Good luck to you and your child!

Just like others said it is their mind working faster than their mouths. My friend had the same thing with her son. When it was bad they would throw a ball back and forth to him. He would not stutter then because it his mind had to think about catching the ball and talking.
J.

My three year old went through something similar about 8 months ago that lasted a few months. It got pretty bad. I asked the ped. about it and she said it is common as their little minds are working faster than their mouths and they can't get the words out fast enough. She told us not to make a big deal out of it and just wait for him to get his thoughts out. Sure enough, after a few months, it stopped. I would surely ask your doctor his/her thoughts to rule out any physical-developmental issues, though.

Try to remember if anything traumatic or unusual happened just prior to this. I had an incident when a bird say on my head and I got so scared that I couldn't utter a word. I stuttered badly and my mother took me to all kinds of specialists conventional and not. We also did speed therapy. It eventually passed but it took several months. Today, if it is related to emotions, you can try a great technique that works like a psychological acupuncture but without needles. It's called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Here's where you can find more info:
www.emofree.com and http://www.mercola.com/forms/eftcourse1.htm. Hope it's just a developmental phase and will pass soon. Good luck.

My son did the same thing. He is now 3 1/2 and the stuttering has stopped.

My 2 1/2 yr old daughter stuttered for over 6 months. It was like some of the other posts where her mind was working faster than her words. We did take her to a dr. about it though. I would have your child evaluated just to be on the safe side but our experience was that the stuttering passed on it's own. We got great advice from dr's about not pointing it out and not finishing their thoughts or sentences for them. It's painful to listen to but patience is very important. Best of luck to you and your little one.

hi i am the mother of 3 smal kids 5, 3, and 2. when my 2 year old was born my 3 1/2 year old started to stutter really bad. i was really freaked out because he was pretty articulate.my husbands aunt who is a pre-school teacher and works w/ special need kids came over to check it out. she said it was most likely a phase and to spend a little more time w/ him one on one. as a mother of 3 i feel that im constantly rushing around. she said to stop doing that. if im late im late. but no point to stressing the kids out buy rushing and making them have stress. so i did and he eventually stoppped.

Both my girls went through phases like this...it will most likely pass

A.
has anything changed in your child's life during that time? New sibling, grandparent move in or out, move to a different house, any kind of fall or hard hit to the head,anything that would cause him to seek attention? If it persists throughout the summer go to your local school and find out when the preschool/speech screening is and have him screened. They will let you know if he can get services through the school even though he is not kindergarten age. Good Luck!
J.

something that my mother always told me about when my sister was young and started to stutter...the doctor told them to literally get down on the floor and crawl with her. something about the way the body and mind work together. it is worth a try. it helped my sister.

My daughter who is also just 2 1/2 now was stuttering 2-3 months ago. I thought back then it might be because of a certain Bear in the Big Blue HOuse episode that did alot of word repeating, or certain songs on the radio. She only did it for a couple of weeks and we'd stop her everytime she'd start. Now she only does it a few times here and there. I think it's something they just grow out of...or at least I'm hoping so! :)

I don't have time to look at the responses first, so forgive me if I'm just repeating what others have said.

I read somewhere that many kids go through a point where their brains are moving just a little quicker than their language development can keep up with. Most kids who start to stutter at a young age are just going through this phase and it will pass, as their minds and bodies get in synch.

My son has always been very articulate too, and went through a brief period where I noticed he was stuttering a little bit and there were hangs, mid-sentence, where he would seem unable to find the word he needed to continue. It was all I could do to keep from finishing his sentences for him, and felt frustrating. We made it through though. I don't remember how long it took, but he's almost six and has been speaking wonderfully again for quite a while. Another sign of it was repeating a word over and over until he could move on to the next word. My daughter did more of that one. She's three now and also speaking just fine.

I wouldn't worry about it unless it persists. Keeping your patience while you wait for him to finish his sentences will likely be the hardest part. I've heard it's better just to be patient and wait for them to finish as if nothing happened - they aren't really aware of it and bringing attention to it can have negative effects. If they do notice it, and get frustrated, then just encourage them to work through it.

Good luck!

public education (speech and special services) start at the age of 3 and ends at 21. if it is still going on at 3 i would contact your local school. testing is free. i really wouldnt worry yourself about it now though, stuttering can be a normal phase of speech up to the age of 5!