stammering - what to do next?

[olivo]

DD is 3.3 and for the past couple of months, has stammered a bit, mostly when asking 'w' questions. i had read, mostly on here, that stammering can be wuite a common phase, so had left her to it. In the past week or so, however, she has started doing it a lot more. I don't rush her or pre-empt what she is saying and try and wait patirntly for her to finish, but it is obviously bothering her as today she said - mummy, i can't say my words anymore
is it worth mentioning to my GP when i take DD2 next week, or shall i just wait and see if she improves? she will start school at just turned 4 next september and i don't want her to have to cope with this on top of being the shy confidence-lacking person she is.

I would leave it a little longer if I were you. Ds used to stammer quite a lot at this age, but had grown out of it by the time he started school. If she's still doing it as she approaches the start of school, maybe speak to the GP then.

thanks lanky. it has got loads worse over the past week and is starting to upset her. it really does break my heart when she stops talking as she cant get ehr words out

Talk to your GP or health visitor but speaking from experience they will probably give you some coping tactics at this age rather than a refferal.

My DS1 is nearly 5 and he did stutter quite alot at 3 and 4 - very much like your DD, normally at the begining of the sentence and especially when he was either excited and trying to explain something, or if he was tired.

I was told to do the things that you have already said - listen don't try and rush them. Get down to their level, try and get them to take a deep breath and start again.

He still sometimes struggles but it has got loads better with age. Good luck.

thank you. i spoke to PIL today and asked them not to mention it or ask her to repeat anything, they were very understanding.will see how it goes for a bit and see if her keyworkers at nursery think its a problem. Not a big fan of the HV so will bring it up with GP if no improvement in a couple of months.

I was seeing speech therapist with dc1 when dc2 started stammering. She gave unofficial advice like:

make time for them to speak, show them you have time to listen, dont interject with ' yes, go on, i'm listening' or anything however kind, because thats another command for their busy brains to process.
She says if you slow down your speech to her it will demonstrate lack of hurry..

if you have more than 1 child make sure you spend even 5 mins a day face to face doing some activity uninterrupted together when she can express herself without a time pressure.

I'm sure you are probably doing all that already, hope it passes quickly.

ds did this for a few months before his third birthday. my friend is a speech therapist and her advice was basically to encourage him without prompting - make good eye contact when they're speaking and make it clear there is no rush and no problem.

i found it helped to get down to his level - and when he was really struggling, i even held him (ie put my hands around him) - seemed to help him relax enough to get the word out.

FWIW it stopped as quickly as it started - we never made a big deal of it and i think that helped him. i still believe had we escalated it (to a gp or official therapist) that he would have become even more aware of it and the tension would have built.