My son speaks too fast

trackerman

My 8 year old son speaks very fast and sometimes stutters the first word of his sentence as he tries to rush.

He also has a habit of mumbling and blending the words together so frequently it is hard to understand him.
We normally have to ask him to slow down and repeat the sentence.
This works for a moment then he just takes off again...

He is a very intelligent chap, being way ahead of his classmates in most areas and yet he is the youngest child in his class.

We are afraid that asking him to slow down is not the correct approach and may make him self conscious.
We are considering a speech therapist but the waiting list is long, even going private.

What advice can anyone lend that will help this bright little chap???

Thanks in advance.

Concerned Dad

melekalikimaka

i had that issue. My parents put me in speech and drama and elocution lessons and sorted me out, any sort of public speaking or theatre will slow him down

trackerman

Thanks for that,
I can probably get elocution lessons easier than finding speech therapy.

Cheers

Paulgar

I have to deal with this problem for years. It is only really now that I'm sorting it out, and I'm nearly in my forties. I wish someone had got to me early. Good luck to you and your son.

antiskeptic

trackerman wrote: »

My 8 year old son speaks very fast and sometimes stutters the first word of his sentence as he tries to rush.

I'm not sure I can add much by way of advice except to say that it might not be a speech issue at root. I speak very rapidly myself - and always have done. But I tend to move fast and think fast and do fast generally. If your son is a "rusher" then the place to be looking at perhaps is the source of the desire/need to rush - not the (various) manifestations of it.

Eve_Dublin

antiskeptic wrote: »

I'm not sure I can add much by way of advice except to say that it might not be a speech issue at root. I speak very rapidly myself - and always have done. But I tend to move fast and think fast and do fast generally. If your son is a "rusher" then the place to be looking at perhaps is the source of the desire/need to rush - not the (various) manifestations of it.

Do you think this could be the case? This is an interesting point. I speak ridiculously fast..sometimes my sentences come out as one but if someone asks me to repeat it, I usually take a step back, take a deep breath and I'm able to repeat it slowly as if by magic. I think its because I'm just a very excitable person. I'm 29 and I still talk like I'm 5 years old sometimes. Perhaps it's something to do with being the youngest out of 5 (very loud) children and I had to get my word in there quickly and I don't think I've lost that. Just throwing it out there but do you think your son gets his voice heard in the family? Is there competition to be heard among his siblings?

pog it

That's a really interesting thought Eve. When I was growing up my mother was a stay at home mother, and my sister and brother and I were only a year apart, and we'd all come in at once dying to tell all the day's news from school.

I think that trackerman has part of the answer in his own post- his son is obviously very intelligent. His thought processes are obviously going so fast and he hasn't yet got the ability to apply those to speech..

I would praise the hell out of him, give him loads of confidence, and be kind with him and say, 'wow I'm not as smart as you, will you explain that to me a bit more slowly?' . That way your son won't think he has the problem.


I think your own work on that could be better than the elocution lessons even..

rilly99

I agree with pogit as a stammerer myself whose first child started to copy me I would not be at all concerned about fast speech we all know lots of adults who belt out sentnences and the other adults who you have to drag it out of my own advise based on the fact that my kids are stammer free is when he says something too fast ask him to slow down even if you understand what he is saying i would not be too concerned about this at all and don't forget he is still only a child , if he needs training as an adult there is lots of courses with regard to how to present yourself

rilly99

I have just reread the thread and note your concerns about making him self concious --perhaps say i did not hear you properly ?? can you repeat --I would shy away from amking a big deal about it just work on the sub concious- and keep away from the therapists--best of luck

hiorta

My late sister had this problem which was sorted after many years by taking a course on ite 'causes and remedies'

Basically, if the person practices taking a deep breath before speaking as slowly as is practical, it will right itself.