2yr old stuttering?

Kernel32

My son turned 2 in Sept. He has always had excellent verbal skills, he has been talking in full sentences for a long time now, he can count, sing, do some ABC's even. Just a little over a week ago he started to stutter frequently, not on new words but usually on the first word of a sentence. He started some preschool a while back the the teacher has also commented on his strong verbal skills but did mention the stutter last week. She doesn't think its a problem but I'm still worried. I did some research online, which I swore off doing, what I found was that a stutter is normal at this age. What concerns me though is that he has started to notice and gets a little frustrated sometimes, which could be an indicator of a real problem. For now the wife and I aren't going to do anything about it except take the advice we have read which is to not point it out to him or finish his sentences and listen more intently to him.

Has anyone gone through something similar with their own child and have any advice to give?

Basq

I have stuttured since i was young. And still do to this day!

But when i went to speech therapy, i was always told that stuttering in young children is very common. And that very few of these cases of stammering go on to later life. He will grow out of it gradually (within a year or two).

Three main tidbits of advice from a fellow stutterer:
- Don't finish his sentences!
- Don't look at his strangely if he stammers!
- Don't hurry him to get the word out!

cajun_tiger

i went through this not so long ago i went to speach therapisted and all
my daughter aged 4 now was perfect then one day stutter it took her 15 mins one time to ask where are we going.. it was terible. i was told this can be brought on by something as simple as a bad dream, and ear infection or something serious, go to your heath clinic put your child on a waiting list and work with it. dont draw attention to it as it can be an attention seaking meathod(if attention is wanted find a positive way to give it rather than falling for tricks that can turn into bad habbits).
children have adult feelings too. s/he maybe feeling a lack of confedince try boosting it with praise.
if you can think of something else a death in the family, or a time where the child was very scared these also can lead to a stutter.

i had one till i was 8 due to being nervious in class because i was very bad at spelling.and the teacher used to pick on me...
i hope it all goes well pm me if you need more info

my daughter has now come out of it and seems to be flying in school

stevenmu

I had a stammer when I was younger, it still comes back sometimes but not noticeably. What happened with me was sometimes I'd be thinking too far ahead of what I was trying to say and the part of the brain that controlls speach would get confused as to what it was supposed to be saying. Other times I would be thinking of two or more different ways of phrasing the same thing without noticing and when I'd jump from one way to the other mid sentence I'd realise something was wrong as the word was coming out and just stammer till I sorted myself out. Whenever I'd stammer my parents would tell me to stop, take a breath and think about what I was trying to say, and then start again. After a while I started planning out what I was going to say in my head before saying it and now I do it naturally without realising it.

BaZmO*

I remember when I was about 8 or 9 I developed a slight stutter. For me it was a confidence thing and it only occurred when I was asking a question and in particular when I used words beginning with C like "Can" or "Could".

I know it sounds strange, but I remember one time in class I raised my hand to ask a question, something along the lines of "Can we do such and such......." and I couldn't get the first word out, I just sat there trying my best to talk but I couldn't get the words out and everybody was just staring at me as if I had ten heads. I can remember it as clear as anything and it was over 20 years. Luckily enough I grew out of it and I got older. I just tended avoid questions starting with can and could. (I know, weird!!)

I think the main factor of me growing out of it was as I got older I just got more confident in my self and sure now you can't stop me talking for love nor money.

To the original poster.

You say your child was fine before he started pre-school?
Is he an only child? The reason why I ask this is to do with the fact that as far as I know most stutters are as a result of a lack of confidence or being nervous. So with that in mind, is it possible that your child has had a bit of a culture shock dealing with other kids in such large numbers and not necessarily having to compete for attention if an only child and maybe his confidence has taken a bit of a knock?

But in all fairness I wouldn't get too hung up on it yet. I'd give it a while before you start sendin ghim to a shrink!


Good Luck with it anyway.

B.

Kernel32

Thanks everyone for your comments. Things have improved since I first posted. There was a couple of days where we were concerned because of the level of frustration he had with it. Thats changed now, the problem is less and instead of stuttering he seems to just spend a longer time on the first word of a sentence, kind of drawing it out rather than repeating it. We have done some research and are aware of things to do and not to do now. My guess is that there are multiple reasons why this started, preschool and the fact that he is developing very fast right now, he seems to do and say new things everyday.

You say your child was fine before he started pre-school?
Is he an only child? The reason why I ask this is to do with the fact that as far as I know most stutters are as a result of a lack of confidence or being nervous. So with that in mind, is it possible that your child has had a bit of a culture shock dealing with other kids in such large numbers and not necessarily having to compete for attention if an only child and maybe his confidence has taken a bit of a knock?

He is an only child but I don't think this is the root cause. We live in the US and he is going to a small private preschool, usually no more that 5 kids in his area with a single teacher so he gets a lot of attention. The school is fantastic, one of the other kids has a speech problem, she basically doesn't talk so a speech therapist is coming in once a week to work with her. We are going to have the speech therapist spend a little time with our guy to get her opinion as well. To be honest we(wife and I) probably freak out a little too much with these things. He is our only child and we want to provide a good childhood for him, both of ours were pretty messed up so we want to break the cycle.