3.5 year old boy suddenly started stammering - help please

[hotpot]

My son started preschool in September and loves it. Over the last week he has started to repeat the first word of a sentence at least 3 times but doesn't seem to do it for the rest of the sentence
ie "what what what are we having for tea"
I am not sure if he is copying someone at preschool, I am not aware of anyone having a stammer as he socialises in the playground before he goes in with his friends.
He has always been a very good communicator. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I talk to his teacher or wait to see if this passes?
Any advice appreciated.

My eldest DS did this too - repeating the first word of the sentence over and over again - sometimes up to ten times. I'm trying to remember, but I think he started doing it when he was about 3 1/2 and by the time he was 5, he'd stopped. In his case, I think he'd start to say something, think ahead a bit, change his mind about what he wanted to say - sometimes his mind would wander too. Repeating the first word was a way of buying time/keeping my attention until he figured out what he really wanted to say. My friend's DS (age 3) has just started doing this too.

So it doesn't necessarily mean there's a problem. But - it wouldn't hurt to mention it to his teacher, or perhaps the health visitor (?), if you're worried.

My niece is three and does this. They best thing you can do is ignore it. I think sometimes their brain works faster than their mouths do. Just be patient and it will pass.

Dd1 who was very bright suddenly started stammering. It was like her brain worked quicker than her mouth. It never seemed to bother her. She stopped overnight too, ironically on the day I'd arranged to see the HV! If you're worried there are local pre-school support people who can give you some words of advice/suggest books. It really is very common though.

Its a phase - as MKG says, as they acquire language rapidly a lot of children have a wobble around this age. Ds did, dd didn't.

My 3.5 visited speach therapist after I mentioned this to HV. Really put my mind at rest. She basically said that it is a developmental phase, if they are previously good at communicating it will likely pass in about 3 months (this is true as she hardly does it at all 5 months later). Often starts if there's been a big change i.e. starting pre school. Mine was ds starting to walk and invade her world!

A tip she gave to help me was even if you are really busy, when the stammering starts, get down to their level look them in the eye and really listen to what they have to say. Found this worked very well.

Huge thanks to everyone who has replied. Am glad to see it's just something completely normal.

His active imagination is on overdrive at the moment so his brain working faster than his speech sounds spot on.

loler my ds2 has just started crawling so that would be similar to your situation with an invasion of his space.

Many thanks again.

Hi - yes, my ds1 went through this phase - it was quite disconcerting because he talked very late (didn't get going until he was over 3) and then once he'd got the hang of talking, started with a stammer. We worried about it but ignored it - let him finish his sentences etc., and it went in a few months. He's 5 now and it's never returned!!

My ds2 (3.3yrs) has started to do this too. It doesnt happen all the time only when he gets excited or obviously has something important to say and wants to get it out quick. He has been doing it for about 2wks now and I had already decided to see how it goes but at the back of my mind i was wondering if i should get it checked. After reading this thread ive decided that i am right to wait. He starts pre-school in January and im hoping that mixing with more children may help. If it is still happening in the summer then i will talk to someone about it but its been reassuring to see that many children go through this phase.

I love MNet, there is always someone on here to calm your fears, how did we manage before