I have a friend who has a 3 and a half year old DS, he is 4 months older than my own DS. She has always been one of those people who has felt the need to tell everyone how advanced her son is, how he was feeding himself at 10 months, brushing his own teeth by a year old, playing with toys designed for 3 year olds at a year old .. you get the picture. And he?s always been treated as if he was much older and capable of so much more ? he was given a 5 metre trampoleen for his birthday and an off-road bike, (the kids? variety but none the less designed for a 7/8 year old?) for Christmas. I?ve never really taken much notice of this, after all, we all have different aspirations for our kids, and all want them to be that much better than everyone else?s? But the one thing there has been issue with is his speech. He didn?t really start to talk until he was about 2, no big deal really as kids all talk at different ages, although comments were being made about him not talking yet as soon as he got to about 10 months old. And here?s the issue, when he did start to talk in sentences, he started to stammer, quite severely. She would just laugh it off and say that all kids do it, that he was just doing it for attention and that it wasn?t anything to worry about, she even shouted at him and told him not to be so stupid and to talk properly. her parents/inlaws did suggest she see someone, if only to confirm that it wasn?t anything to worry about, but she flatly refused. Anyway I didn?t see her for a while, and then I saw her at my DS birthday party. There were loads of kids there, and all of them were talking 10 to the dozen, apart from this child. If he said 2 words during the whole afternoon it was a lot. I paid no attention really but then saw him a couple months later, and the same scenario occurred, and the couple things I did hear him say did still contain the stammer. My DS has recently started nursery at the same place as this child, and last week when I asked if he and this child had played together he said that he had tried to talk to him but that he doesn?t talk to anyone at nursery. I?m just so worried that the stammer has caused this child to lose any confidence he has with regards to verbal communication, and that instead of trying to talk, he just doesn?t bother to talk at all. I can?t help thinking that this is going to harm him with regard to his confidence/self esteem in the future, and yet his mother is totally in denial. I know it?s none of my concern really as this is not my child, but I can?t help being concerned really ? any thoughts?