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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Stuttering in a 3.5yr old

8 replies

tigermeow · 11/08/2008 21:15

This seems to have been an almost overnight development. I noticed yesterday that DD (3.5yr) was finding it hard to start her sentences. Today the stutter has become even more noticable.

How do we deal with this? I'm assuming we just ignore it and stay patient until the words come out. Is this something that could go away as quickly as it started or should I take her to the HV if it is still here in a few months time?

Many thanks.

OP posts:

BabieWabbit · 11/08/2008 21:21

My cousin started this at the same age we assumed it was due to his sister arriving..
We did find the best tghind to do was ignore it and he soon stopt when people didn't react to it

BabieWabbit · 11/08/2008 21:22

thing and stopped

MrsPorty · 11/08/2008 21:24

Is she unwell at the moment? DS does this when he's poorly or overtired - HV said it's quite common.

smugmumofboys · 11/08/2008 21:27

Ds1 had this at that age. it's called verbal non-fluency and is completely normal and OK. We were referred to a speech therapist by our HV although that was mostly due to his having difficulty saying the letter l. The ST just said to do what you are doing - don't draw attention to it, don't finish their sentences for them etc. It's down to either a bit of anxiety or because their speech hasn't caught up with their brains. It'll probably go by itself, may then come back again and go again. DS's went within a few weeks/months.

HTH

simpson · 11/08/2008 21:31

My Ds who is nearly 3 had it for a couple of weeks over the letter M. I think its when he had so much to say he couldn't get the words out quick enough iyswim. It has gone now totally. And smugmumofboys is right - just ignore it

Original poster

tigermeow · 11/08/2008 21:32

Thank you for your replies. She seems quite well in herself at the moment and has been sleeping very well (for once)!
Hopefully this is just an age thing. Her confidence has always been quite low so I worry that a stutter isn't going to help her with her self esteem.

OP posts:

gladders · 12/08/2008 10:57

just echo what's been said already - ds has had this a couple of times - and both times it went away. he just has so much to say he can't get it out quickly enough!

ps - when it was really bad and he was getting a bit stressed, i used to physically reassure him (hug/hold his hand etc) and that seemed to alm him down enough to take a breath and carry on.

kafka · 12/08/2008 16:05

Tigermeow, my son has a stammer and he has been helped by the Lidcombe programme which is an australian technique to help pre school children who stammer.

A lot of children are dysfluent at this age and it is not clear which of these will go on to stammer as older children and which will grow out of it naturally.

I am so pleased we had the help as he rarely stammers now and the three speech therapists he has seen all felt that it was not just a stage with him it was a stammer, it can take an expert to determine this.

If you are worried get help, if you are in london i can give you the details of the fantastic university speech clinic we go to

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