Is this a stutter in 8 year old DS?

[MoneySuperMeerkat]

DS is 8, year 3. He has developed an unusual speech pattern - a couple of people have commented on his 'stutter' but I don't think it is?

Basically if you are just chatting to him his speech is normal, reading a book, answering questions - all fine. When he gets excited, especially when he is trying to get/keep your attention he starts stuttering. But I think it's just that he hasn't decided what to say - he just wants to talk. I think he might've been doing it for a while and I haven't really noticed until it was pointed out.

Recently we were in the car and he was talking 'you you you know the th-th-thing' and I said stop for a minute - why are you saying 'you you you, th th th - is it hard to get your words to come out sometimes? Or is it something else?' He said it's something else, it's just I don't know what I want to say. I told him to wait, think about it and start again - he said the sentence without problem. I did the same just now this evening. But is this the right approach? I don't want to make him self conscious or feel bad. Should I be reaching out for help? I haven't had a chance to talk to his teacher (social distancing at the school gate) but will email in to ask next week.

I think he is fine - but I don't want to ignore a potential problem if it's better to act early.

my six year old does the same. i’m not too worried. i think it’s just his brain working too fast for his mouth to catch up! like your son, once he stops and composes himself for a second he can say what he wants to say just fine.

Yes. Same. I'm not sure whether I should encourage him to slow down/take a breath or just leave him to it though?

One of my children has a stutter. Obviously, I'm not a speech therapist but from my experience, I would say if your child had a stutter it would affect their speech overall and not just in certain situations. You say when he is chatting and reading it doesn't happen - my child will stutter whether relaxed, stressed or neither of these.

I think it's fairly normal to trip over your words when you are excited or trying to make a point, especially if you are eight. My advice would be not to draw his attention to this anymore. It is quite hard to get NHS speech therapy, I can imagine it is even more so now (my child is a young adult who has had a lot of therapy in the past but not for several years).

Nothing to worry about in my opinion, but try not to focus on it.