Any SALTs here - end of word stammering in 4.5yo.

[Flowersforbees]

Copied from chat to maximise chance of response

I'm wondering whether this might warrant further investigation.

My son is 4.5, starting school in September.

He has good language and is quite mature in the way he speaks.

He will repeat whisper end of phrases after he says them E.g. it's time to go outside, followed by 'go outside' in a whisper. I think this is palilalia.

This has started to decrease but he's started to stammer / repeat the last sounds in words. Not all the time but enough for us to have noticed. For example. I think nk nk nk nk that we should ...
The word and seems to be followed by nd nd nd.

Having read about it it's not a stammer but atypical dysfluency but what I'm wondering is whether it is something to keep an eye on to see whether it passes or if it's better to catch these things early and ask for a referral to SALT. It's not affecting his life in any way at the moment, he is unaware of it.

My LO does the same thing! Also nearly 5, due to start reception in September and is generally a very able talker (good vocabulary etc etc). I contacted the health visitor about it and we have an appointment at S&L clinic in a couple of weeks. Luckily down here they triage you and school starters get bumped up the list a bit. If no one else comes back with anything I’ll try to remember to come back and update the thread after our appointment.

I actually originally contacted health visitor as I was worried his speech was still a bit ‘swashy’ compared to his peers. That seems to have improved a lot (though he still can’t say the sound for ‘w’ and is very aware of this) but then this stammer thing appeared and gradually got worse.

That's interesting. Would be very interested to hear an update once you've had your appointment.
I fear waits here will be very long, seems like all services are but I'll see how he goes over the next few weeks and if no improvement I'll see about a referral.