22 month old suddenly stammering, family history

[polkadottop]

My 22 month old has been speaking in sentences since she was 16 months and can hold a conversation with me and use reasonably complex 7 word sentences although her pronunciation is poor so others struggle to understand her. In the past week or two she has developed a stammer which seems to be getting worse day by day. I've read stuff saying that it is relatively common to get a stammer for a short period of time aged around two or three, but my father and brother have a stammer, so do you think I should try and get her seen by a SALT straightaway and should I be worried?

nope. I was told this is very common as speechimproves .their minds work faster than theirmouths

catwoo is right that this is fairly common in children aged 2 to 4 years where their brains race ahead of their mouths. You are right of course to be concerned given your family history. I would check out www.stammering.org which is a great information resource and will tell you all about normal non-fluency at this age. Usually it will resolve itself by around 6 months post-onset. My DD was also an early speaker and she had this for about 2 months and then it passed. It might be worth mentioning to the HV if she has a developmental check in the near future to keep an eye on it (only because of family history) but she sounds like she's doing really well speech-wise that it could just be something that resolves spontaneously.

My son (3.5) has a stammer (he was a relatively late speaker) and we have been referred to SALT (by HV and School). My mother has a stammer, and I understand there is believed to be a genetic link. Your DS is only very young, but I would read up on it and mention to HV just in case.

I just thought that I would follow up on this in case anyone is in the same boat. I eventually rang our SALT and they ran a drop in service so my DD saw someone briefly, who will follow up with a phone call after three months, and she will start speech therapy then if there is no improvement. They actually prioritise stammering as early intervention is seen as effective, so they recommend young children seeing SALT as soon as possible. I had a lot of people in real life telling me that it would go away by itself but it is worse than ever so I'm glad that we are now in the system.

Polka, excellent post and advice. Di many people think its a development thing and will go away. It might or might not do people should always go to SALT as soon as. My DS is now 5, no family history but we are still going. The stammer is improved but not gone and I was told early intervention is key. IME HV's are useless with this. Mine gave poor advice (tell him to slow down, the exact opposite of what the professionals say). Also, in many instances you Do NOT need a referral, you can just self refer. Hope things get better with your DD