Does anyone else's toddler stutter?

[Itsychik]

Over the course of the past couple of months my toddler has started stuttering. It used to be just over a few words like "pa-pa-pa-papa" and "ma-ma-ma-mama" but it's gotten progressively "worse" in the past month and now it's every sentence he stutters over words. Tuesday we were with friends who have a DD the same age and my DS and their DD were singing songs together but my DS coudn't keep up the tempo because he stuttered so much over the words.

Anyone else's toddler stutter? Were you given any advice on how to help them? Or is it just something he's likely to outgrow?

Thanks

 

[Spottycup]

My LO is the exact same. She's 4 in feb and has only started stuttering about 2 weeks before half term and it started off just the odd word but got worse very quickly. Last week we had a few bad days where she really struggled to get the words out and every word started with a stutter. At the moment she still stutters but its not every single word like last week. We spoke to nursery a few days ago and she said she might stop herself they don't know but because theres a very long waiting list they are going to refer her to speech therapy. We are hoping it'll just stop itself before then but if not we hope speech therapy will help.

She was a great talker and then this stutter just suddenly appeared. My 19 year old brother used to stutter when he was younger and my parents said it started out of nowhere, he went to speech therapy and things but he managed to stop it himself.

I'm sorry i don't have any actual advice on how to help. x

 

[Button#]

My LO did this for a while. It seems to be starting to tail off now but it has coincided with his vocabulary expanding. A few of his friends around the same age are the same. It seems that his speech can't keep up with what's going on in his head. I'm not worrying too much about it as it does seem to be starting to resolve itself but if you're worried mention it to your HV.

 

[OmarsMum]

DS went through that phase when he was 3 but he used to repeat words not letters within a word

 

[superfrizbee]

My daughter's speech is excellent for her age but she has recently started stuttering. My gran was a speech therapist and she says it's normal - her mouth struggling to keep up with her brain. She told me never to hurry or correct her, or tell her to slow down or anything like that. Just ignore and get others to do the same so they dont start dwelling on it. She's already doing it much less.

 

[Rhio92]

Connor used to stutter quite badly. It took about a year, but eventually he grew out of it. It can be hard, but you have to be patient and let them say what they need to say. The health visitor was really supportive too x

 

[RaspberryK]

Ds has gone through phases of stuttering, as others have said it's the mouth not working as fast as the brain.
Xx

 

[PoppyPainting]

My gran was a speech therapist and she says it's normal - her mouth struggling to keep up with her brain. She told me never to hurry or correct her, or tell her to slow down or anything like that. Just ignore and get others to do the same so they dont start dwelling on it.

My friends lo started stuttering around age 3. Their speech therapist gave exactly this advice. Don't hurry or correct her and don't tell her to slow down or relax. Her stutter was getting stuck on a certain letter. So my daughters name is Evie, and she would call her eeeeeevie. Her stutter came on v quickly and she was very hard to understand some days. Now nearly a year later its not particularly noticable.

 

[Itsychik]

Thanks for the responses! Feeling much better about it xx

 

[Sini]

DS has been stuttering on and off for about 6months. Some 'spells' last a few days others a few weeks. It seems to happen whenever he expands his vocabulary and progresses in his conversational skills.

First time I was stressed out and worried but we took the 'ignore it approach' which has worked well. He doesnt seem any different when he stutters and it doesnt seem to bother him at all.

We made sure to tell family and friends about our approach as soon as we could because a few 'slow down' and 'take your time' comments from family made DS noticable shy.

I wouldnt worry about it too much but I guess if it lasted months etc I might be inclined to talk to our GP etc.

 

[jd83]

It's pretty normal, a lot of times they do it when they are getting to a point with speech where they want to say a lot, and their mouth just can't quite keep up with their brain and what they are thinking they want to say. My older son went through a phase of it around age 3, and outgrew.

 

[jd83]

One other thing to mention is if it upsets your lo, ask him to take a deep breath, slow down and try again. Sometimes my son would get really upset if he kept stuttering and just couldn't get out what he was trying to say, and that always helped. If I got him to take a breather, then try again, he was usually able to say it at that point.