5 years boy is stuttering please advise

[Sunrisemummy]

want to share my experience with my ds stuttering (hoping for advice, similar situation, how long did this last and if resolved)
He start speaking at age 3 (was late talker) and at 3.5 over night he start stutter with repetition and big blocks, that last for 2 weeks and then got better with only few repetition (only 1-2 times) he had SLP evaluation and they told us that it was a development phase and there is no reason to worried. His speech continues the same (a few repetition here and there). When he was 4.3 he had again a severe stuttering phase and we start immediately the lidcombe program, after 2 months of therapy his stuttering was very mild to mild. We are doing therapy for 8 months now, 2 months before he had again a severe stuttering period that last for 2 weeks. Now he is almost 5 and he is repeating words or syllables or letters, he doesn’t have blocks. In his last language evaluation we learned that he has a language delay only with the structure of the sentences. I am so worried for him that it will never go away. We are paying weekly sessions that is very expensive, I am practicing with him every day and the only think that we accomplish is to make his stuttering being in low ( between 1.5 - 3 in lidcombe scale). I feel so tired and disappointed that I don’t know what else should I do. For now they suggest us to start weekly sessions for the structure problems ( they think that because he is struggling with forming sentence that is a trigger for stuttering) and 1 session by month for stuttering ( I will continue doing lidcombe everyday but it’s not necessary to meet the SLP weekly because I learned that method well all this months ) just to add every time that he had a very bad stuttering phase with blocks after his ability to speak was more advance than before (grammar-vocabulary-length of sentence ) sorry for the big post but I am feeling very bad and helpless.

SLT here, stammering specialist. Are you based in the UK?

If you are, you don't need to pay for speech therapy privately. The NHS offers Lidcombe and other therapies for free.

Is your son aware of his stammer? Does it bother him? What does he do to try to help himself?

Ask your SLP about Palin PCI therapy - your son may be suitable.

The most important interventions for children who stammer are environmental. I presume your SLP has spoken to you about 'special time' and reducing demands on his communication skills.

A lot of children grow out of stammers (even at a fairly late age) and those who don't are mostly able to manage it. Fluent speech is only a small part of communication. Most importantly - remember parents do not cause stammers.

Thank you for your reply bumpyknucles, no we are leaving in Canada, the services here are not the best, my child was in a waiting list since he was 2 years old (because the speech delay, he was late talker) and start receiving some services before one month ( waiting list for 2 years and 10 months!!!) the appointment are 1 - 2 per month and you can see that the girl that is his SLP doesn’t have any experience about stuttering. So I can’t stop the private lesson ( the private center is teaching lidcombe program to Canada and there is a big experience there). Yes we now about the environment and the demands. My son is not aware of his stuttering, he is talking all day long without bothering him ( he just need few more seconds to finish his sentences because he is repeating 1-3 times or prolong the first word and sometimes 1 repetition in the middle). He wants to talk a lot and when you are listening him you think that he is trying to figure out the words and how he will put them in the correct order.

I forgot to mention that is a bilingual kid, at his daycare they talk French and English ( he understands some French but he talks only English) at home we talk only English with him and He hears also Spanish( is the language that me and my husband talk each other 70%spanish - 30%english). We don’t have any stuttering history in our family. The 8 months that we are doing lidcombe we never consider that his language ability can affect his fluency ( we were waiting to see, we never been sure) but after his last episode with blocks we notice that the blocks was Words that start with st, sp, sq, sn and l it was sounds that in the past he couldn’t say and when he was starting to try he had a big problem, those blocks last for 1 weeks, with intense the first days and gradually they disappeared and for 1 week he had many repetition around 7 and then he returned in the same pattern that is the last 1 year ( 2-3 at lidcombe scale) the episode last for 2 weeks. After that he is talking with more complex sentences. So they decide to continue with more intense language therapy for 2-3 months and then we will evaluate again the situation. I don’t know I am so tired being worried for his future.