Is this usual, or early signs of a problem?

[allatsea]

Dd is 2.6 She started to talk at a year and her spoken language is generally ahead of her peers and has been for some time. Recently though she has struggled to say 'what' and we get many wh,wh,wh before the word finally comes out. We thought that it was because she was trying to work out which 'question word' she was going to ask and was getting a little confused. However, over the last couple of days she has struggled to say a number of words (my, what, I to name but a few) Is this normal? Should I see someone about this, and if so, who?

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thanks essbee, that's very re-assuring. She is obviously quite frustrated by it and sometimes ends up growling or shouting the word to get it out, which is quite upsetting for us. Although reason tells us that it's probably her head working faster than her mouth, there's always a little niggling doubt that it could be something else

I would almost certainly say this is normal. ds1 has always been extremely advanced in his speech. He is now 2 years 5 months. He has recently started to EXACTLY the same thing as your daughter. Just now we had: "W...w....wh...wh...what you d... d... do.. doing mommy?" He does it quite a lot and with a variety of letters and words. I am not in the least bit worried as I genuinely feel that he is doing it because he CAN, and because of no other reason. His command of English is so good. I am 100% convinced that it is a phase and that it will pass.

My daughter had this and I just patiently waited for her to finish what she was saying regardless of how long it took, shes now 6 and although she isnt a chatter box, when she does speak its absoultly fine. Dont worry!

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thank you all,I feel so much happier now having had your comments

Agree, there little brains are working faster than their mouths and they are trying desperately to make themselves understood. Don't worry it is very normal.

We're also dealing with this at the moment with our 2 yr 10 mth old DS1. Again, it's 'wh wh why' and 'ge ge go' but over the last few days many more words including his brother's name, learn, boy. We're especially worried because there is a history of stammering within DH's family.

Anyway, we spoke only tonight to a friend who is a speech therapist and her advice/opinion is pretty much what's given here. She said it's so common at this age and if it's to happen at all, this is the age she would expect/'hope' to see it at. In many ways it's information overload. We shouldn't rush their speech at all - no matter what's happening give them the time to finish what they're saying without prompting, if we can't, then tell him we'll talk to him in x minutes when finished doing x task - in other words, 100% attention rather than 50%. Don't ask questions of the child - in that way, we're taking the pressure off him to come up with words and sentences. Let him lead as much as possible. Slow down your own speech but DON'T tell them to slow down. Oh, and routine is so important - everything low key and familiar.

I'm sure more of her advice will come to me later on but she was really reassuring (well, except we ourselves may have a child who has a pre-dispositon to it cos of family history) in that hopefully if we take a step back and ignore it, give him time to talk but don't make him feel pressured with big questions etc, it should blow over - hard to tell how quickly but maybe a few weeks, a month - I think it depends on the individual child.

So glad to read others posting and that we're not alone with this!