4 year old anxiety stutter

[NoFrills01]

My 4 year old is at school and has started to stutter.

She did have some previous speech therapy for missing sounds, of which she went to two sessions and was discharged as she wasnt "bad enough" and we were told starting school might help, we have now been told today we need to revisit speech therapy from the school, and to mention this anxious stutter.

Daughter is also suffering with eczema, I feel like she must be feeling super stressed out. The eczema came first then the stutter. School have also noted the stutter and told us to speak to the GP.

She was always in school throughout lockdown, I'm not sure if all the class going back maybe stressed her a little.

Shes eating well, sleeping well and no bed wetting. She is doing well at school otherwise and is very much liked and takes care of others.

We just started her at a club on a weekend, to help the confidence. I'm at a loss and feeling worried myself and sad how stressed she seems.

Whilst I can’t offer anything that will help properly I didn’t want to read and leave.
My heart goes out to you, the last year has been tough and I don’t think we sometimes realise how much our LO’s have suffered.
I hope she gets her confidence back with some help and gets back to herself.
The club sounds great for her. ❤️

My ds has a stutter. We worked on it with a SALT via Zoom and over the course of around 9 months it was practically gone. He has been at school during lockdown due to the work dh and I do.

Stutter suddenly came back with a vengeance when the whole class returned, although on the face of it he has not been phased at all by lockdown, schools closing/opening etc. But it really was BOOM, here it is again out of the blue on the first day they were all in.

It is just beginning to reduce down a bit, still noticeable but not generally stopping him getting words out. Hoping it will recede entirely again.

You may want to ask about the Lidcombe Programme if you feel your dd's stammer is really hindering her. It's intense and requires a LOT of parental involvement (it's you doing it with them daily, under the guidance of SALT every couple of weeks or so) but seems to be about all they have to try to tackle it.

From a teacher's point of view, I and all my colleagues have noticed that the children who have found it more difficult have been those who WERE in school throughout. They got used to lots of adult attention, lots of support and really bonded as a small unit. The dynamics shifted when everyone returned, and several children did not like that or cope well at first. Settling down now though.

With regard to the stammer, try to consciously slow down when talking to/around her, to model that taking your time and even pausing sometimes is perfectly natural, no rush. And make sure you get ten minutes uninterrupted special time with her a day, where again there's no rush.

Have a look at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering- there's some useful info about stammering.

DS had a bad stutter at that age. It wasn't nerves, it was that his ideas ran inside his head faster than he could get the words out so he stuttered until he caught up. Once he learned how to speak nonstop without pausing for breath the stutter stopped.