Am I over reacting over my daughters stammer?

[happymumof4crazykids]

I've made an non emergency appointment for my nearly 3 year old daughter to see a dr as I am concerned about her speech. She has always been very talkative and her speech was pretty clear. Over the last week she has started stammering and stuttering especially when beginning a sentence with I. My sister told me I'm over reacting and she will grow out of it, I'm wasting the Drs time and they won't do anything anyway! I feel that she should be referred to speech and language and let them make the decision. Am I over reacting? Should I just wait till she starts nursery in January and see what they think?

Can you not go directly to SALT? Must you go via your GP?

Ours got a stammer a few months before turning three, it lasted a couple of months and afterwards his speech was much better (increased vocab, better sentences etc) I'd wait a few weeks at least as it seems to be common at that age.

My son did this. He was a really good speaker until about 2 1/2 then the stammer started (at the start of a sentence). The doctor said it was because his little brain was working faster than his mouth and everything was out of sync. He grew out of it.

DD has stammered on and off since about 2y9m, she's 3y3m now. Quite a few people have said their dc did similar, I think there's a lot of language development at this age.

I decided to give it 6w and she got better, sometimes she does it now when she's got a lot to say or when she's tired. I would give it a bit longer before going to the GP, not necessarily Jan, but definitely a couple of weeks.

If your GP is the first port of call then go. You have a perfectly valid concern about your child's development, unless your HV is still an option then the GP sounds sensible.

My daughter started stammering just before starting pre school. It took a few months but it did sort it's self out.

I spoke slower and tried to be clearer with shorter sentences, we played word games and match the word to the picture games and obviously didn't finish her sentence for her and let her finishe what she was trying to say.

She struggled with "I" sentences, could literally say I 20+ times. No harm in seeing the doctor for a referral if you are really worried though.

Exactly the same happened to my DD who had just turned 3. She started to stammer really badly especially with L and P sounds and I was really worried. I rang the SALT at my local children's centre and she said she would send me an appointment out. A few weeks later I got a letter asking me to go to a meeting with other parents of children of a similar age to be given information on what to do to encourage her to speak slowly and how to react to her stammer. I was a bit especially as the appointment was for 6 weeks later.
Well, by the time the appointment came round her stammer had gone! I rang the SALT to explain and she said 'yes, that's very common and why we don't rush to see them at that age' she explained that it was just her brain wanting to get her words out but her not having the vocabulary to do so, it sometimes takes a few months for them to sync.
Interestingly my DS is now 3.8 and is just starting to stammer but im not worried this time.

Give her a month or so and just try not to finish her sentences like my dad used to, it drove her mad :)
She couldn't say the L sound until the end of reception BTW and her teacher said it was fine at parents evening.

It's very common at that stage and they usually do grow out of it. It's very unlikely that they'll refer you for it unless it doesn't resolve itself. Maybe give the health visitor a ring for some advice?

Thanks everyone it's good to hear that other children were fine after a few months and the stutter resolved itself. My health visitor only works part time and is pretty useless if I'm honest do I think I'll stick with the gp. The appointment is not for another 2 weeks so will keep it and take her if it hasn't resolved.
I didn't even know you could contact SALT directly I assumed a referral would be needed so that's good to know thank you.

I'm an early years teacher. Last year I had 3 children who all developed stammers between 3 and 3 and a half years old. The SALT said to log when it started, and if it hadn't resolved on its own in 3 months, to put in a referral to them. It seems it's very common at this age.

3 out of 5 of my children developed a stammer between 3 and 3.5. It lasted between 6 month-year each time.

None of them have lasting issues.

It was just like their brains were going too fast for their mouths and they were 'tripping' over their words.

My DS first developed a stammer just before he turned 3. It comes and goes but when is does go we notice he has had a massive upload of vocab. It's almost like buffering time!