Onset of Stuttering - anyone having this issue?

marcinator19 · June 2011

So my DD who is not quite 2 1/2 just recently started stuttering. Background on her - she was an early talker and is now in almost total basic command of the English language - she speaks in complete sentences, conjugates verbs correctly, etc. But all of a sudden she started stuttering pretty bad just recently (last 2 weeks or so) and it's pretty pronounced.

Part of me thinks that it's just her mind is working faster than she can get the words out and she's so particular about getting her sentence structure correct that maybe it's causing her to stutter.

My DH keeps hounding me to email the pedi, which I did today but haven't heard back yet. I'm wondeirng if anyone else has gone through this?

I'm thinking it's just another phase that will pass, but that's just my instinct.

LoCarb · June 2011

No advice, just similar situation. We noticed DD stutters on words that begin with A or O.

PinkeLLe2 · June 2011

Yes! About 2 months ago, DS started stuttering also. It's mainly when he's asking where or what so the W's. It's gotten some better now. He mainly started out doing it when he was excited (what's that?! where we going?!) It's gotten a lot better. Just seems like he gets a little ahead of himself and can't get it out. He's a lot better now though. I freaked at first too b/c he's always been a great talker and never had any issues. I had to take DS2 to the doctor for his 4 month check up and brought DS1 along too to ask about it. The pedi actually heard it before I even brought it up and he wasn't concerned. He said it'll pass (but for me to let him know if it gets worse) and 2 months later, it's about gone.

Hopin4aBaby · June 2011

We just finished going through this with my DD. My DD started stuttering about a month to two months before I had my youngest DD. (She has just a little over 2.) It just progressively got worse and it was heart-breaking to watch. It seemed like it came on from nowhere. (started out being noticeable when she was tired or excited/a lot going on, but then progressed to being an all the time thing.) She was just like your daughter, started talking early and talked very well for a 2 year old. I talked to her pedi about it and he said since she her language was quite advanced for her age, that it was very normal and she could grow out of it. But, as the months went on, it just got worse. Finally, in Feb (after stuttering for about 8 months) we took her to a speech clinic to be evaluated. They pretty much just confirmed what we already knew, that her stuttering was severe. Since she was only 3, they didn't recommend any speech therapy at the time. They just told us somethings to try with her, like: making sure we stop everything that we are doing when she is talking and having touble and just listen to her. Don't try to finish her sentences/thoughts for her (which can be very hard and frustrating), slow our speech down when talking to her (adults naturally tend to talk fast. Plus she talked so well for so long we tended to tell her a lot of things at once). Another thing they suggested was glossing, which means after she told us something, we pretty much just repeated it. That really did help. The one thing the pedi and speech pathologist differed on was that her pedi told us that when she started stuttering, that we could tell her to slow down and think about what she is trying to say. We did start out doing this and all it really did was draw attention to the fact that she was stuttering and she started getting frustrated. The speech pathologist said to ignore it and act like nothing is wrong. I will say that that was the best route to go. She stopped getting frustrated when we stopped making it an issue. It was very hard, stressful and heartbreaking for us to watch. Seemed like she was the only kid having this probably and it was stressful going out in public and people asking her questions because you just knew she was going to struggle and it broke your heart. HOWEVER, I will say that after 9 months of stuttering, it is basically gone now. As fast as it started, it stopped. It's been a few months of stuttering (just basic stuff) and it is so refreshing. Sorry this is so long, but I know how stressful and heartbreaking it is and am happy to say that things got better even though you are afraid they never will.

Magnolia322 · June 2011

DS was the same- spoke very clearly and early, uses pronouns correctly, complete sentences, etc. Around that age, he did some stuttering that turned out to be just his mind moving faster than his mouth. For example, "he he he he he wants that toy." We just didn't make a big deal of it and didn't point it out to him. It went away after a couple months.

j&jp · June 2011

My DD did this for a month or so as well. I work with speech pathologists and they confirmed it is very common in early talkers. At this young age, they don't even call it stuttering, they call it disfluency. They are just thinking too fast for what they can get out. Obviously as the one PP reported it can be a severe problem, but typically it will just pass. The recommendations from my coworkers were to not comment on it at all and not tell her to slow down. That would just give her one more thing to think about. Just pay full attention to her and wait until she gets it out.

Just to think about in the future, they said it can come back as they have another burst of language. One of them said her son has it come back about 3 times, each time it went away pretty quickly.

lovelylinz · June 2011

I'm just checking in to confirm the good advise above. I am an SLP and stuttering is very normal in younger kids, particularly when they are having language growth spurts. The more attention you draw to it, the more they will notice it. If it gets to the point where the child notices and is bothered by it, then you may need some professional intervention or at least a chat with an SLP. Until then, try not to give it any attention and definitely speak slower. Just to test out the speed of adult speech, try listening to someone talk and tap a finger for every word. Then listen to your child speak and tap a finger for every word. You will see that adults tend to speak much more quickly than toddlers. If you can slow down to their speed, they won't be trying to talk faster to catch up with you.

love.love · June 2011

Magnolia322:
DS was the same- spoke very clearly and early, uses pronouns correctly, complete sentences, etc. Around that age, he did some stuttering that turned out to be just his mind moving faster than his mouth. For example, "he he he he he wants that toy." We just didn't make a big deal of it and didn't point it out to him. It went away after a couple months.

same for us too! only lasted about 1.5 months and came on right about when he was 2.5 yrs old.

definitely was his mind moving faster than he could speak. It's kind of amazing.

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