Stutter in almost three year old girl

Digs

My daughter is 3 at the end of April, she's been consistent in her speech and language development, probably slightly slow to pick up speed with her speech in the beginning but never gave us cause for concern and has always been a very vocal girl and well able to communicate!!

In the past four weeks she seems to have developed a stutter along the lines of -"Mama I I I I I want go wee" or "My My My My want go see my gaga" - I haven't been paying much attention to the frequency of it, it certainly wasn't every sentence she spoke but it seems to be getting more pronounced and if anything not getting better. It doesn't particularly seem to be at times she's excited, tired or upset, she could be sitting having something to eat at the table. In the beginning we were asking her to slow down but very quickly realised that's not the way to go and we are very patient now and allow her time to get her sentences out without rushing her.

We weren't too concerned about it but her childminder who is a very relaxed, laid back woman and has minded a multitude of children in her time mentioned it last night and was wondering if we were going to get her looked at.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with this, could it possibly be normal toddler speech behaviour and a phase or something that we should be investigating? Any information would be greatly appreciated

bp

My almost three year old would do it sometimes, but lessening in past month or so. I was told by sister that speech impediments start to show at 3 ish

Digs

Thanks BP, I think maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves!

My Mam just mentioned to me given we are expecting number 2 in June and she was only toilet trained before Christmas maybe she is feeling a little anxious and this is how it's manifesting itself! She's otherwise very happy and sociable and the stammer doesn't bother her much so maybe we are best leaving her be.

eviltimeban

Sounds more like her mouth is ahead of her brain a bit, as she's forming the words like "my" instead of going "m...m...m...". She might just be finding it hard to figure out what she wants to say, rather than finding it hard to form the words. You'll be able to tell the difference.

And don't worry about the toilet training timing, different kids take different times. My first did it in one weekend at a slightly later age, the second took longer but he was younger.

Digs

eviltimeban wrote: »

Sounds more like her mouth is ahead of her brain a bit, as she's forming the words like "my" instead of going "m...m...m...". She might just be finding it hard to figure out what she wants to say, rather than finding it hard to form the words. You'll be able to tell the difference.

And don't worry about the toilet training timing, different kids take different times. My first did it in one weekend at a slightly later age, the second took longer but he was younger.

Yeah I think you're absolutely right about her mouth maybe engaging before her brain. It is almost like she speaks before she's figured out what she wants to say!

What I meant by only toilet trained before Christmas was its a fairly recent change for her, she actually took to it really well and got the hang of it quick enough. I was wondering if that change coupled with me being pregnant was affecting her. She's "excited" about the baby and talks about it a lot but maybe she has her own little worries about it that she can't communicate!

Then again as first time parents we are probably worrying about something that isn't an issue at all

Penny Dreadful

Digs wrote: »

Yeah I think you're absolutely right about her mouth maybe engaging before her brain. It is almost like she speaks before she's figured out what she wants to say!

What I meant by only toilet trained before Christmas was its a fairly recent change for her, she actually took to it really well and got the hang of it quick enough. I was wondering if that change coupled with me being pregnant was affecting her. She's "excited" about the baby and talks about it a lot but maybe she has her own little worries about it that she can't communicate!

Then again as first time parents we are probably worrying about something that isn't an issue at all

I was going to suggest something like this. My mum said that when she went back to work for a brief period when my older sisters were 2 and 3 that my 3 year old sister developed a stutter for a little while. There was also a new baby on the way then too.
They didn't make a big fuss of it and encouraged her to slow down a little with what she was trying to say and after a short while the stutter went away. The fact that mum was at home again after having the 3rd baby may have helped too, I don't know? But having her back at home full time meant a resumption of business as usual for my older sister? Who knows.
Either way the stutter didn't last.

Digs

Yeah penny that makes sense alright, maybe it's a combination of a few things which will work themselves out

Her form is very good otherwise so I suppose we should be glad of that and leave her be!

RentDayBlues

My then 3 year old was exactly the same, it went on for about 4 months and then stopped as suddenly as it had started. We said to ourselves we'll leave it for a few months and see what happens before we seek help.

I think it was a development leap whereby her mouth and brain weren't in sync

Now at 3 1/2 it's just cheekiness I have to deal with ;o)

Digs

RentDayBlues wrote: »

My then 3 year old was exactly the same, it went on for about 4 months and then stopped as suddenly as it had started. We said to ourselves we'll leave it for a few months and see what happens before we seek help.

I think it was a development leap whereby her mouth and brain weren't in sync

Now at 3 1/2 it's just cheekiness I have to deal with ;o)

That's kind of music to my ears, thanks so much! It's hard to know what to be concerned about in this parenting gig!

She's an unreal cheeky monkey at times too, can only imagine what it gets like as speech improves. She asked her Aunty why her bum was so big the other day :O

elaney

I had exactly the same thing with my three year old she is now 3 and a half and she is well able to speak. I asked a phn friend of mine and she said its very common at that age.

Digs

elaney wrote: »

I had exactly the same thing with my three year old she is now 3 and a half and she is well able to speak. I asked a phn friend of mine and she said its very common at that age.

That's good to hear thanks, someone suggested ringing the phn alright.

The more I spent time listening to her over the last two evenings the more we realised she's absolutely grand and it's probably more a case of mouth working faster than her brain.

Thanks for everyone's replies. Much appreciated.