DS 22mo seems to be developing a stammer. Any experience?

[megonthemoon]

My DS is 22mo and seems very good verbally for his age - plenty of three/four word sentences, loads of vocabulary, can count to ten, good at communicating what he wants verbally etc.

However we've noticed over the past month that he has started to stammer fairly often (although not all the time) over the first word of his sentence. so e.g. "mummy" becomes "m-m-m-m-m-mum-m-m-mummy" or "watch trains" (key phrase for this boy, said about 20 times per hour!) becomes "w-w-w-wat-wat-w-w-w-watch"

He tends to do it more when he is really keen to get my attention, or pretty excited.

Is this normal with a child this young trying to develop his speech and control over language? His speech has come on so quickly in the last 2 months that I just wonder if his mouth hasn't quite caught up with his brain IYSWIM! Or do you think that stammering at any time is a sign that it could become a problem, and hence should I get him checked out by doctor asap to try and resolve it?

Thanks

Not an expert but my dc2 did the same. It got worse before it got better and then disappeared. For us I think it was absolutely the case of the brain working faster than the mouth. He was an early talker too.

I posted about DS stammering a few months ago. He's 2.3 now. The stammer comes and goes, he won't have it for weeks, then it'll come back for a couple of days. Like your DS he's a pretty good talker but I think sometimes his mouth just can't keep up with his brain! It also seems worse when he's tired.

Give him time to say what he's trying to say and don't say it for him.

DS had a terrible stammer for about 6 months - I kept an eye on it, tried not to finish his words for him and t gradually died off. Has a very mild one left now when he's tired or trying to rush but I have a feeling that will go too.

I was convinced it was a problem becasue he stammered sooo badly and it carried on for so long. But it wasn't.

Thank you! Such quick responses

It's only been going on for a month so I was just planning to keep an eye on it over the next few months and see if it starts to settle - sounds like in many cases that it has faded away in that time. At the moment his speech is improving hugely on a day by day basis - widening vocab, improved pronunciation, sentences etc - so I wonder if it is just a case that too much is going on at once and sometimes his mouth just can't quite cope. I'll keep an eye out to see if it happens more at certain times - e.g. if he is tired.

eggandsoldiers - thanks for the advice on speech therapy. I'm very open to this if the stammer hangs around for a while longer - my 3yo niece has benefited hugely from it for a different problem (she was mixing up pronunciation of certain letters) - and will bear City University in mind should it come to that.

Also meant to say he should be getting his 2 year old check up soon so will raise it at that point too.

Just worth keeping an eye on it. My son was a early speaker and extremely chatty.

He was on the waiting list for nhs speech therapy but the list was so long that he never got an appointment.

It is so hard to know whether it is or it is not at that age because it can be normal but it also is the time when stammering usually appears.

So the view of those who are experts with children who stammer is to treat all as this is safer than waiting until the child is older as then it is likely to be entrenched.

Hopefully it will go away but if it does not I really would recommend seeing a therapist who specialises in children who stammer as speech therapy is a huge specialty.

Lidcombe therapy is fantastic.

In addition to the behavioural techniques, we were told never to never finish his sentences, to respond to what he says not how he says it and never to ask him to repeat a stammered word or to tell him to 'take a deep breath and say it again'etc... And to asl others who cared for our son to do the same.

Also for some reason a lot of adults would comment on his stammer in front of him or laught out of embarassment or ignorance etc... I made a point of asking them not to do that as I did not want ds to be aware of his stammer as I felt that would be unhelpful.

I have a very bright ds1 and he did the same at around 2 1/2. Think his brain worked faster than his mouth! He is 6 now and there is no sign of it whatsoever. It just disappeared.

egg - "So the view of those who are experts with children who stammer is to treat all as this is safer than waiting until the child is older as then it is likely to be entrenched." This made me laugh - it may well be the experts view but around here the practicality is that it would take at least 6 months to get an assessment by a speech therapist, never mind get a referral to an expert.

HV took the view that we may as well wait for 6 months as we were unlikely to be seen before and that speech therapists wouldn't refer for specialist treatment until any child so young had a stammer for more than 6 months!

Hi,

I really hope I can help as I have been through this with DS, almost 5. His stated at about 2 and a bit and we left it about 6 months before having him assessed by a speech therapist. His stammering was always at the beginning of a sentence and was much worse when excited, stressed, upset etc. He has always been a very bright boy which we have encouraged and tried to bring him on as much as we could. In essence the ST said that he had so many words going on and his vocab was so vast for his age this was the main problem. OK, so things to do to help him;

• maintain eye contact with him at all times when hes trying to talk to you...even when he's stammering
• never interrupt him or tell him to slow down, take a breath etc
• Slow down your talking to him and keep it fairly simple language (this was our biggest thing, we realised we treated him as an adult a lot of the time, he was an only child at the time)
• Turn the TV off, make it easy for him to talk without a lot going on in his environment
• Don't ask him lots of questions, this raises the pressure on him to talk. Talk to him, play with him lots, let him choose an activity to do together and no questions (easier said than done lol)

-Keep instructions simple too, for eg, I used to say to my son 'go find your socks and shoes, I left them on the stairs and go put them on.' It is a lot for them to process. Break everything down, one instruction at a time.

We noticed huge improvements after only a couple of weeks doing this. Your son is very young and a certain amount of non fluency is normal. Keep an eye on it, try the things I mentioned and see if it helps.

In my experience the speech therapists want to see the children at a preshchool age as there is massive evidence to suggest that the earlier the intervention, the less likely it is going to be an ongoing thing. Do not be fobbed off by your HV or your GP, where I live in MK stammering in young children is seen as a priority as my ST told me too many times they see children in schools where the problem has gone on for years and is much much harder to fix.

I have gone on too long now but all the best and do let us know how it goes.

Big hugs xx

Meant to say my ds' stammer is gone completely now, apart from when he is very stressed (starting school in sep was a biggie) but otherwise you would never know he had a prob.

PS - you can't shut him up either so good luck with your DS, he sounds like he is doing excellent with his vocab! x

Hello, I work at the British Stammering Association and thought I'd write something.

As has been said, it is quite common for children to experience difficulties with their speech- around 5% of children under the age of 5 will do so. Around the age of 2-3 is when most children start to stammer, although it can develop at a later age.

In the majority of cases, they will naturally outgrow it. However, we do not advise that parents leave it to correct itself, as some of the posts above have said, as up to a quarter of children are at risk of developing chronic stammering which may persist into adulthood without intervention during the pre-school years.

Therefore, we advise anyone concerned about their child's stammer to get their child assessed by a Speech and Language Therapist as early as possible. It's never too early to act. By getting in touch with the British Stammering Association, we can give you direct contact details of your local NHS therapy service where you can refer yourself without having to go through your GP.

If you are concerned, phone our helpline (local rate) on 0845 603 2001 or email [email protected].

Stammering can affect children in lots of different ways -some will block at the start of sentences, some midway, and others at the end. Some will repeat sounds.

The exact causes of stammering are not yet fully known, but new research is suggesting that it's genetic. There is no evidence that parents cause stammering, so don't blame yourselves.

Please see this link for parents of under 5's from our website, which gives tips on what to do in the home to support your child: www.stammering.org/under5.html

And here is a link for older children: www.stammering.org/parents_info.html

For more information about stammering in general see our website www.stammering.org.

I hope this helps
Steven
British Stammering Association