Help - My Child Is Stuttering/Stammering Out Of The Blue

kirstle99

Hi All

My DS is 3 years old and attends nursery full time. He has always had excellent speech and talked really early. His speech has always been above that of his age.

In late July, both myself and the nursery noticed he was starting to struggle slightly when speaking, and was developing a slight stutter/stammer. The nursery explained to me that there was another little boy who had moved over to the school nursery side that was doing it aswell. It has not been made clear if this little boy had this issue previously or not.

Anyway, in August I had my DS out of nursery for 2 weeks for the holidays. I thought this would really help him to concentrate on how he speaks and I worked with him to try and help him.

The problem has only got worse and now i'm really worried. He goes to school September 2015. I'm confused as to why it's come out of the blue like this, his speech really was so good before.

Does anyone have any advice or tips they could give me?

TIA

McKneff

Health Visitor or GP is the best place to start.


Has there been any trauma's within the family, a death or anything like thath.

peachyprice

I think it's quite common in children of that age, more so boys, as they try to use more complex language, kind of their mind knowing what words they want to use more quickly than they can form the words IYSWIM.

One of mine suffered for a while but grew out of it within a few months. I remember to HV telling me how common it was, but if it went on for more than 6 months she would have referred is to a speech therapist.

But I would definitely take him to the docs, just in case it's something more serious like stress related to something that is happening at nursery.

kirstle99

We've had anger issues over the past few months.

On this day last year their father walked out. He started to show signs of frustration like kicking and shouting. But never ever had any issues with speech.

I'm actually wondering if it's started off with him copying this other child (he copies everything) and then now it's turned into a problem of it's own?

claretmatt

Same thing happened to mine at this age.

I guess I concluded that his brain was working faster than his mouth.

We just let nature take its course and avoided drawing attention, finishing sentences etc. stopped after a short period.

kirstle99

Thank you. I'm hoping that's all it is, a phase. I'm going to give it until January and then review it, I phoned the British Stammering Association's anonymous helpline and they were lovely, i've downloaded their leaflets on how to deal with things at home too.

markdebby

My grandson did the same at the same age. 6 months later he is fine. The answer we got was he had lots to say and was trying to get it all said at once. Give it time.

marisco_2

You sound like a great mum OP, really focussed and on top of things with your little boy. Involve him in all that you are doing and keep chatting to him calmly and clearly. Take every opportunity to have fun and play with him. When children communicate with others through play they are far more relaxed and at ease.

misswig

My oldest son started stammering around about this age completely out of the blue, just one up one morning doing it!! Like your son was an early speaker, very advanced and articulate. I spoke the health visitor and she referred him to a speech therapist and by the time he saw her 4 months later, the stammering had completely gone! They put it down to him having a lot to say and at that age, lack of ability to het it out as quickly as his mind was wanting too! He is 10 now and never stops talking now!!
My youngest is 2 1/2 and has also just started stammering too. We are going down the line of completely ignoring it and waiting it out in the hope that it too resolves itself.

kirstle99

Thanks everyone, it sounds like a bit of a waiting game then! Hopefully it will correct itself as others have suggested, thank you, it's good to know i'm not the only one to have experienced this!

Morglin

My lad never stammered, but suddenly started to spout gibberish in a rush...words all the wrong way around...they told me his brain was going faster than his mouth could....:whistle:

He soon grew out if it.

Lin