Suttering in 3 year old

[mum2JRC]

My son has been suttering for a good 6-8 months now. I was wondering if your child had a stutter at this age did they grow out of it or did they need Speech Therapy?

My DS has been referred to Speech and Language Therapy and we are attending a parent workshop next week.

I would be grateful of any advice from parents whose pre-school child stuttered.

Many Thanks

My DD stuttered from about the age of 2.5yo and it was getting to the stage where she was getting frustrated as she couldn't say what she wanted to.

I spoke to the HV - particularly as my dad has a stutter too and we wondered if they could be linked - and also as we wanted to flag it up early (she was already speaking in full sentences at that stage so had lots to say!)

HV suggested we monitored it for 6 months - and, TBH, we kind of just got used to it, especially as DD2 had just arrived!

Anyway, she is now 3.5yo and does not stutter anymore. The HV figures it was simply that her mouth could not work as quickly as her brain in getting her words out. She does sometimes need to be reminded to use her words as she kind of got into the habit of pointing and grunting but she is a real little, confident chatterbox now!

Hope the SALT workshop is interesting and useful but \hv told us quite a few children grow out of it as they mature.

Good luck.

SaLT can make a real difference. The first thing the SaLT will do is listen to decide whether the stutter is a 'stutter' or 'normal non-fluency'. Then s/he will discuss potential treatment options. She might mention 'Lidcombe', if you google this it will give you a starting point and some good advice for parents.
I'm a SaLT and that's what I would do (currently on maternity so not available for work), besides all the extra checks to check speech development and language is progressing along typical lines.
Controversial: If NHS SaLT recommends treatment but there is a long waiting list, this is worth going private for (your money wont be wasted), but if you don't go private it won't harm your child's potential for change following treatment (it is ok to wait on the list if you can't afford it). It is not always the case that it is worth going private for SaLT to jump the NHS waiting lists.
I hope that helps, I only mention private because some people worry that they should be doing that if they get put on a waiting list and sometimes it isn't going to make much difference.

Thanks for your replies.

I'll look up the 'Lidcombe' therapy you suggested TurtleAnn. We would happily go private if we needed to.

Today's been a frustrating day for my son as 70% of his sentences he has stuttered (repeats same word many times) and he has often got stuck on more than 1 word in each sentence.

It doesn't stop him from talking and is quite a chatterbox.

Hi MumtoJRC

I've just seen your post, having posted my own about my 2.5 year old. I have also read that it's 'normal' for 2-5year olds to develop a stutter, and that many/most grow out of it - fingers crossed ours will too! Very comforting to read your post Dysgu - thank you. It's hearsbreaking to listen to though, particularly when the sentence is "I i i i i i i i i i i i i really love mummy." That's reduced me to tears again just typing it!

Hi CoffeeAndCarrotCake

Yes sending positive thoughts that your child grows out of it too.

I read some information on Lidcombe Therapy last night and makes interesting reading. Think it is definetely a therapy route we will want to explore as my son's stutter is increasingly getting worse rather than better