Stutter - posting for traffic

[Ifancythor]

I think my 2 yr old has a stutter. Most sentences start “ I i i i i i i i i I etc..... it isn’t every time he starts speaking but I’d say over 50% of the time. I’m wondering if this is normal/ developmental (I have an older child who doesn’t stutter and never did this) or I need to seek out a referral to speech therapy ?

My 15 year old DS stutters. He was very late to talk and has always stuttered.
A lot of children stutter when they're little but grow out if it.
I think your 2 years old is too young to know for sure but there's no harm getting it checked out.

@gadsbot thank you. I’ll pop to GP and see if they can refer on x

A lot of them go through stages of stuttering. I wish i had known this but it is really common.
By all means talk to the gp but it might be ok by the time you see someone. Good luck.

@3luckystars thank you 🤞🤞🤞 crosses its a phase.

It's often just a developmental phase. My DH stammers and so we were kind of on high alert when our eldest did, and for a while we took him to a speech therapist when he was in primary school. However he seems to have grown out of it.

Both my children did this for a while. It’s like their mouth can’t keep up with their thoughts. They’re both very confident and clear at speaking now.

Must be worrying but I believe most children grow out of it. I got similarly worried when my eldest got a transient tic but all my kids now have them from time to time then they go. Keep monitoring it and go to the GP but chances are it will be fine

Thank you all. I alternate between thinking he will just grow out of it and then being in utter panic that I’m not getting it sorted and being an awful parent.

"Utter panic"
Really? Is a stutter considered so bad then?
FWIW my 17year old DS has one.
No amount if speech therapy helped, in fact it just annoyed him. He has loads of friends, gets A stars in his science A levels, plays with a band and is gorgeous.
We dont see his stutter.
If anyone else does then that really is their (resisting temptation to use the word "fucking") problem.

My son (15) also has a stutter, he had speech therapy when he was 5/6 and it did help for a while. He does stammer now, but it in no way bothers him or has negatively impacted on his life, in fact he is an extremely bright boy. It seems to be when his brain and mouth are not keeping up with each other. If anyone ever laughed at him or judged him negatively it would say more about them than him!!!

I think keeping an eye on it and send him to a speech therapist if he finds it upsetting and his ability to communicate is being compromised.

I think it can have a lot to do with language acquisition and usage, so the stammer happens while the brain is formulating the rest of the sentence. I developed a temporary stammer at 21 when I moved from one country to another and had to use a different language in my day to day life. I had never had one before that. It was my native language but the stammer lasted about 6 months while I got used to using it again.

I think you can self refer or we did anyway. We had a private therapist assessment and an NHS one. They said the complete opposite to each other. The Lidcombe method I think is really good and most effective in younger children but I wonder if 2 is too young to get a diagnosis. I understand the panic. I was torn between "so what, he is a brilliant boy and will be so with or without a stammer." And wondering "but what if there is something I can do about it and make his life a little easier." I read every book and joined the British stammering association. Two is very young and you have lots of time to get assessed and therapy if it continues. So don't panic.

My niece did this at around that age. Maybe a little older, but yes, as a pp said, it's like they have so much to say and their mouth can't keep up with all this stuff they have to get out.

It was a phase and lasted a couple of months (if that), but she is nearly 3.5 now and doesn't do it any more at all.

The advice we were given was that most children grow out of it, but they can’t be sure which children will grow out of it naturally and which ones might benefit from intervention. In our area SALT would ask all children with a stammer to be referred, provide advice and intervention and then monitor. I managed to get some advice from a professional whilst we waited. We followed this and it seemed to help. Our daughter was 2 when the stammer started. The stammer went and returned again briefly, before disappearing. I have been told that we need to be 9 months clear before they consider her cured but we are 5 months in and no sign of it returning so far.

Both my children stammer. The advice i’ve had from SLT is more about being supportive, e.g. talking slowly to them, not rushing them, etc. They have learnt some techniques which may have helped a bit but overall the advice was that stuttering is mysterious, sometimes it disappears as suddenly as it arrived, sometimes it comes back again and again, sometimes it’s a one off.

Try to remain calm and supporting. His stuttering has nothing to do with your competence as a parent. This is not something that you can necessarily sort out.

How long has this been going on for OP? It is reasonably common for children at this age to stutter and lots will grow out of it. If its been a few weeks I wouldn't worry too much. Often it is linked to leaps in language development and their system has to catch up.

There is lots of advice out there e.g. try to avoid asking too many questions e.g. saying 'I'm drawing a car' rather than 'what are you drawing?' or 'I wonder what Teddy is going to do next'. This reduces the pressure to talk.

If you are worried, or it has been more than a couple of months, speak to your GP or HV or see if the Speech Therapy service have any drop in sessions you can go to.

I’m joining in to agree that’s it’s very common at that age and will usually resolve itself. I’d go for watchful waiting rather than rushing off to the gp.

It’s been going on for roughly 6 months (since he turned 2 really) . Thanks for all the advice it’s been useful x

Six months? I’d maybe run it past the health visitor then.

My daughter had one. Speak to your health visitor. Where I lived at the time (NW) they had a HV who specializes in speech problems. She saw us a few times (2 is still early for intervention apparently) to see if there was any improvement.
Actually it resolved on its own but if it hadn't HV told us that she would refer us to speech therapy.
Try not to worry as pp said it is common and most do grow out of it. They try to start intervention before school starts I think.
Try not to worry

If it has been going on for 6 months I would recommend doing as you suggested and requesting a referral to SLT. GP or HV is a good starting point. After 6 months it is less likely to go away spontaneously but some speech therapy sessions should help. (I'm an SLT)

Google ‘Lidcombe’ speech therapy op. It’s a special programme especially for stuttering. Worked miracles for my DS when he was six.

My dd stuttered at the same age.
We were referred for speech therapy, it also coincided with painful shyness at the unexpected, so if we hadn't pre warned her we were expecting a visitor she would hide and cry for the whole visit.
We never made a big deal of it.
We comforted and never forces anything with the shyness and just tried to avoid putting her in that position.
With the stutter we ensured she knew it wasn't a problem or big deal.
We'd refer to her words getting stuck and get her to take a breath and pick another word.

She grew out of it but it is worth getting g a federal

DS (12) has a mild stammer. Diagnosed at 7. He's mostly fine with it, gets frustrated sometimes

Now at secondary school there's been some mild teasing which has shocked him as never had any comments at juniors. It's worse when he's tired or anxious.

It's part of who he is and certainly nothing to panic about.

Thank you all. I calmed down and did some googling and my county has drop in clinics you can take pre school children too if you have concerns.
I’ll look up the techniques managed.
Thank you all so much