To worry that 2.5 yo has started stuttering

[Lockdownlover]

Hi all. Posting here for traffic as I’m worried and would love some advice.

Ds1 is 2.5 and in the last month has started stuttering. It’s quite a lot I would say and happens at the start of a sentence maybe every 4/5 sentences. In the last few days, he has also started putting his hand over his mouth whilst he does it. Sometimes it takes a good 5-8 seconds for him to get his word out but he still tries it. Sometimes he changes what he trying to say also. It doesn’t seem to bother him and he isn’t getting frustrated, but I think he’s started to notice he’s doing it. I’ve read a bit online about not telling them to slow down etc., speaking slowly, repeating back their sentence when they do it.

Has anybody else experienced this? Did it stop by itself or did you end up seeing a speech therapist? What did you do to help your dc? How long did it last?

I’m starting to really worry now (obviously hiding this from ds) and don’t know what to do.

DD2 started doing this last month (she was 2 in April).

She’d start a sentence like this “me, me, me, me, me, me, me do it.” I said at the time I was worried about her developing a stutter, but on reading your post I realised it disappeared as quickly as it arrived!

Two out of three of my kids went though a stage of stuttering (about a month) at a similar age. I think it can just be a stage of normal development.

Please try not to worry. Both of mine (a boy and a girl) have had stutters of varying lengths as their speech and language have come on. DD is 2.5 now and I noticed she was stuttering a few weeks ago, at the start of sentences. In both cases it has just gone on its own. I think it is not uncommon as kids develop and I don’t think it automatically means it will occur throughout life. Someone might be along who knows the science behind it.

I think he’s quite young, maybe his brain is working quicker than his mouth. For now just repeat the sentence back. don’t rush him, this is really important, give him time to speak. Your body language may well betray you though sometime even if you feel you are giving him time. Is there any particular sound that can make the stammer worse?

Ds3 was 3 in April and he does the same as the pp’s dd - repeats words several times like ‘mummy what what what what are you doing?’ or ‘my my my my my turn now’. He’s been doing it about 4 months now.

I’ve done a lot of googling and apparently stuttering whole words is often normal but there may be more cause for concern if they stutter syllables at this age like ‘m m m m mum’.

Is your lo stuttering words or syllables op?

My now 5 year old did this between 2 and 3. We never drew attention to it or corrected him. If he was getting frustrated we would just say "take your time"
It eventually just went away. I think if we'd pointed it out he would have gotten anxious and it would have worsened

I'm a children's SLT, happy to give you advice if you want to message me.

Just to add another viewpoint my son started stuttering age around 3.5 and still does four years later. He had some underlying health conditions that we think could have possibly triggered it. It ebbs and flows depending on the situation and his wellbeing (i.e. worse when tired). It's not the end of the world. Most are just temporary though.

Oh and we've never pointed it out, hurried him, etc.

My son did this
Apparently it's really common
It passed and there are no issues now

Yes. Ds1 had this at about that age. It used to come for a few weeks then go away for a few weeks so that I thought he was over it, then it’d come back again. Lasted about 6 months - long enough for me to get worried and talk to HV team about it. Got some advice from speech therapy team about making sure you look at him at his level and listen when he’s speaking, not rushing him, speaking slowly and clearly yourself. Obviously as soon as I did that it went away and never happened again. He’s now 9 and no sign of it since. I think it’s very common as their speech is developing and brain sometimes goes faster than mouth.

Hi. Thank you for the replies so far. Maybe it is developmental as his language and the amount of words he knows has really increased in the last couple of months.

@InterestingIris sometimes it’s words but it is mainly the first syllable. I also read online that this is more of a concern.

@Freddiefox I haven’t noticed it being a specific sound but I haven’t consciously listened to notice a pattern. I will make note tomorrow and see if there is a pattern. Thank you.

@flamingoshoes I will pm you. Thank you very much.

DS has gone through a few phases of this. I was really concerned the second time and even more so the third. But he doesn't do it now at 3.5y.

There seemed to be more than one factor that made it worse.

1. Wanting to say more than he could work out how to in the moment
2. Being excited
3. Spending time with my mum who speaks over him a lot
4. Trying to hold on to something or get something he knew he wasn't allowed to have!
5. Having had a busy and exhausting day at nursery
6. Nursery having an indoor day so stuck in a crowded room which was very noise all day

Wish someone had warned me it's a natural part of language development. The amount of stress I went through

My DS also started stuttering around the same age. I took him to a speech therapist after a few weeks of it - my nephew had a speech impediment so I just wanted to get it checked out sooner rather than later - and as a PP said the “diagnosis” was simply that his brain was working faster than his mouth. It had basically passed in six months.

The most helpful advice she gave us was to take the pressure off speaking eg

• Reducing the number of direct questions we asked him so using ‘is this a...’ rather than ‘what is this?’
• Replacing questions with conversation, for instead of saying ‘Would you like to play?' say: ‘there are some toys here if you would like to play with them’ (giving him space to talk if he wants to)
• Try not to demand speech e.g.: ‘say hello’ and ‘tell me this story’.
• Try not to interrupt ever

And all the things you are already doing about speaking clearly and slowly ourselves etc etc. I got nervous because of the family history but it was just a phase.

My DD1 did this at the same age. We were worried as DH stammers and he didn’t want that for his child. I contacted the HV who put in a referral to SALT but said she wouldn’t be seen until 3 at the earliest. HV reckoned it would have gone if it’s own accord by then and she was right. The British Stammering Association had some useful information on their website.

ive been told it's normal. my DS is 3 just and goes in and out of phases of it, at least 2/3 times now.

Left handed kids quite often have a period of stuttering when they try to copy the norm of right-handed. Normally sorts itself out fairly rapidly.

@Wallywobbles

Left handed kids quite often have a period of stuttering when they try to copy the norm of right-handed. Normally sorts itself out fairly rapidly.

Now that’s interesting!

Apparently if you had to have lots of scans during pregnancy you’re more likely to have a left handed baby. I had 18 extra ones. I’ve been watching for signs of being left handed like a hawk. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, just because I find it interesting

DS is 3 in July. He started stuttering the first week of lockdown and has completely stopped now. It was almost like he was trying to get the words out too quickly and was stuttering. He's picked up so much more in the past 3 months and has a brilliant vocabulary now after being slightly behind before

I think this could be dysfluency rather than stuttering. I'm not a SALT but someone who is told me repeating words is quite common under 4. Their brains are going fast than their mouths. It should begin to lessen as they age. However, if it is repeating sounds or seems strained it could be stuttering and a SALT could give you some strategies

My daughter started one at a similar age and had it for about 2 years. It was very varied and would get worse when she was tired, excited or anxious.

She naturally grew out of it, we did refer to speech and language therapy but they initially said they wouldn't look at her until she had it a stammer for a year because a lot of children will grow out of it by then. By the time she got to the top of the list for therapy she grew out of it.

The main advice was to let them take theirtime and not finish their words for them.

Think of it like buffering

@flamingoshoes I've sent you a PM, I hope that's ok.

Thank you everyone for your replies. It’s just so difficult as any parent hates to see their child struggle. It’s also hard to tell between a phase and a potential problem you’d rather catch and help with sooner rather than later.

My son is 2 years 8 months and for the last few months he has been doing exactly what you describe in your posts.

One of my good friends is a HV and I spoke to her about it a few weeks ago and she said it is completely normal and many youngsters of this age will experience it - she said it’s related to their brain wanting to talk quicker than their mouth can cope with.

She told me not to worry at all but if that he was still doing it in 6 months time then to speak to his own HV.

Ironically, he seems to be doing it much, much less now. It seems to have disappeared as quickly as it arrived.