Stammering two year old

[BornToFolk]

DS has just started stammering. It can be quite pronounced, especially when he's tired but at other times as well. He stumbles over words like "Mummy". His speech is generally quite good I think. He's just two, has quite a wide vocabulary and can do 4 or 5 word sentances e.g. Mummy put it in there.

I've read thissite and I'm trying to do what it says and slow down, give him time to talk and repeat what he says back to him, but it also says that you should see an SLT. However, I'm a bit reluctant to take him off to see an SLT if it's a phase he's just going to grow out of.

Any advice? How long should I give it before seeing an SLT?

My dd did this when she was about that age but was diagnosed with disfluency -sounds like a stammer but it is more that they just cannot get the words out quick enough.

I just kept trying to slow her down and it righted itself, but get him checked by SLT for proper diagnosis if you are worried.

Will echo previous poster........a stammer at 2 usually isnt a stammer, just that they have a HUGE influx of words that they cannot get out quick enough.
Just get ds to stop and take a slow deep breath then start the word again.

It does sound like that - as though his mind is going faster than his mouth can cope with! I was hoping that it would resolve itself when his mouth catches up.

I've been making sure that I stop and give him my full attention while he tries to tell me something. I'll try asking him to slow down too.

My DS has been doing this too, (he's 26 months) and I was worried until I remembered my brother's little boy doing the same thing at the same sort of age - as previous posters said, it just seems to be that they have so much to say and the words get jumbled up and 'blocked', as it were.

I'd give it a month or two, if I were you, and as you say, get him to slow down a bit, be encouraging and give him your full attention. Am sure he'll be fine when his brain and mouth catch up with each other!

I posted on here about exactly this about 2 weeks ago. Had mentioned problem to our GP who said DS just had "far too much to say"!!!

I wasn't very impressed so called my health visitor who was lovely, she talked me over the main points of: talking slowly to DS, ignoring his stutter, taking plenty of time to listen to him (or, if busy letting him know I will be along to listen to him shortly), avoiding asking him too many questions when stuttering is particularly bad, plenty of eye contact.

She also sent me some really useful info. most of which can be found if you do an internet search.

She suggested we implement the inital measures ourselves, at home, and revisit in 4 months to see how things are going.

DS' stutter has improved already and I feel that, in particular, talking to him slowly has helped (although may just be a coincidence).

One of the mumsnetters who replied to me suggested we pay privately to see a language therapist- she said she did this and it was the best £50 she had ever spent - worth bearing in mind if you have the budget.

It's very common in children at his age.

Both my boys did it for a few months or so, and neither have any trace of it now

Hi BornToFolk

We are having exactly the same issue with our 23-month-old DD. She has always been a very good talker, but over the past couple of weeks has started to struggle to get words out. It is starting to frustrate her visibly now and although we had thought we would just wait a while and let it pass we are also now wondering if we need to see someone. No advice really but just someone in the same boat!

dd3 developed a chronic stutter almost overnight just before her third birthday. She was repeating the initial sound at the start of a sentence about 10 to 20 times. I self referred her to the SALT team but the stutter cleared up after several weeks almost as fast as it had developed so by the time she saw the SALT it had long gone. The SALT lady explained that a stutter can often appear when a child is going up a gear in their speech. This is clearly what was occuring with DD as she was using much longer sentences when the stutter vanished. Is a bit of a worry at the time though!

Hi there - my DD1 has recently gone through a stage of doing this, from about 23 to 24 months. Seems to have stopped for now, but I agree with the above, that it seems to have coincided with a leap forward in her speech, and probably nothing to worry about unless it persists. From what I remember as a child (both me and my brother had bad stutters on and off until almost adulthood), its when your brain has worked out what it wants to say, but the bit that says it can't quite keep up. Just need to not make a deal out of it, so they don't get self conscious, and give them plenty of time to get out whatever important utterance it is (eg 'can you put cbeebies on )